A Lily Story
by Sierra Charm
Summary: What would have happened if Lily and James hadn't died? Would it make Harry a different person? Would it affect the lives of people like Neville Longbottom, Severus Snape, even Draco Malfoy? Would the Dark Lord conquer the world? I guess we're just going
1. Prologue: The Secret-Keeper

Prologue  
The Secret-Keeper  
  
"Sirius, I want you to be our Secret-Keeper," James said gravely, looking his best friend straight in the eye.  
  
Sirius nodded immediately, not even bothering to mull it over. The answer was yes, yes, yes; he'd do anything for James. "All right," he said.  
  
"Dumbledore will be here tomorrow with Professor McGonagall to perform the spell." James said. Sirius nodded and slipped out the back of James's house as a dog, just in case someone was watching. The last thing they needed was for Voldemort to find out where Lily and James were hiding the night before they performed the Secret-Keeper spell.  
  
  
  
Sirius rushed into Lily and James's house the next day, excited. Inspiration had struck last night, and he had a perfect plan---absolutely foolproof.  
  
"James!" He yelled, running through the Potters' living room and knocking over a stack of magazines as he went. He ignored the magazines and rushed right into the kitchen, where Lily was flying a spoonful of baby food into Harry's mouth. Harry giggled happily as Lily made airplane noises, and he slobbered down the food, some of it dribbling down his chin.   
  
"Hi, Sirius," Lily said, smiling at him as she loaded up another spoonful of baby food.  
  
"Hi, Lily," Sirius said. "Hi Harry," he made a face, which caused Harry to giggle again and bounce happily in his chair. "That is one spoiled baby," Sirius said. Harry bounced in his chair in agreement.  
  
Lily served up another spoonful and made more airplane noises. James, who had been washing dishes, turned around and glared at her.  
  
"Are those airplane noises?" he demanded.  
  
"Yes," Lily said, glancing over at James while feeding Harry another spoonful. "Why?" she asked, raising an eyebrow as she wiped off Harry's chin.   
  
"You're teaching our child airplane noises, when he will never ride one of those in his entire life?" James said.  
  
"My mom made airplane noises," Lily said indignantly.   
  
"Lily, dear, your mother was a Muggle," James pointed out.  
  
"And?" Lily demanded, standing up and facing James with a threatening look. "Is there something wrong with my mother?"  
  
"You mean besides the obvious?" James asked innocently. Lily's gaze turned to stone.  
  
"Strike one," Sirius said, hoisting himself up on the counter. Lily glared at him too, then sat down at the table and made airplane noises for Harry as loud as ever.  
  
"Lily!" James pleaded. "Please don't do airplane noises! Anything but airplane noises!"  
  
"And what would you have me do? Broom noises?" Lily asked, turning around in her chair and giving her husband a Look.  
  
"Precisely!" James smiled widely.   
  
"Brooms don't make a noise, James,"   
  
"They do if you put a rocket engine on them,"   
  
"James! You didn't!"  
  
"Didn't what?" James said, avoiding his wife's gaze.  
  
"You know what I'm talking about! James!" She said, getting up from the table again and marching over to her husband, who had a very 'I'm-a-Marauder-of-course-I-put-a-rocket-engine-on-a-broom' look on his face.   
  
"James!" Lily said again, but he refused to look her in the eye. "Oh my God," she said, putting her head in her hands. "A rocket engine, James? A rocket engine? And whose brilliant idea might THAT have been?" She asked, shooting a very pointed Look at Sirius, who also refused to meet Lily's gaze. Instead he twiddled his fingers and stared intently at the ceiling.  
  
"It was a school broom," James shrugged.  
  
"James!" Lily yelled.   
  
"And that's strike two," Sirius said.  
  
"Shutup, Sirius," Lily snapped, glaring at her husband. "We are not making rocket-engine-attached-to-a-broom noises to our son. Now, what is wrong with airplanes?"  
  
"They're made by Muggles! Harry's never going to ride a Muggle airplane!"  
  
"He might if he goes to visit his grandmother!"  
  
"He can just use Floo powder for that," James shrugged.  
  
"Not your mother, James. MY mother."  
  
"Why in the world would he want to go see your mother?" James asked. This got Lily thoroughly pissed, and she turned and stomped out of the room.  
  
"And that would be strike three," Sirius said, hopping off the counter. "So, James, I have a wonderful idea," he said, walking over to the table and sitting down in Lily's now-empty seat. He bewitched Harry's spoon to feed him on its own and make loud motorcycle noises as it did so. Harry seemed to thoroughly enjoy this, and Sirius smiled at him.  
  
"What idea would that be?" James asked, going back to the dishes.  
  
"Well, you know how you were going to make me Secret-Keeper?" Sirius began.  
  
"Yes," James said, magically flying some dishes into a cabinet.  
  
"Well, I was thinking, wouldn't it be brilliant if you made someone who could be easily overlooked Secret-Keeper instead? I mean, I'd probably be one of the first people Voldemort would go after. Now, if you made someone like, say, Peter, Secret-Keeper, no one would suspect. I mean, isn't Peter the last person you would suspect to be keeping a secret like that?"  
  
"Well, yes," James said, turning around. "But I don't know. Peter has such little willpower. Do you think he'd actually be able to keep the secret if he WAS questioned?"  
  
"See, that's the thing! He probably wouldn't be! That's the brilliance of the plan! And besides, we can trust Peter. It'll be great!"  
  
James considered. "That's actually a really good idea," he said. "Peter is the last person anyone would suspect."  
  
"NO!" Lily said, coming back into the room. "I will not have that rat protecting our secret. I don't trust him. It's either Sirius or Melody or Dumbledore. No one else," She crossed her arms and looked pointedly at both of them.  
  
"Fine," James sighed. "Have it your way, Lily. Sirius will be our Secret-Keeper,"  



	2. Chapter One: Bad Dreams

One  
Bad Dreams  
  
"All right, go for it, Harry!" James said, releasing the Snitch. Harry looked around and saw a flash of gold leaving the room. He zoomed into the kitchen, chasing it. He swerved around the table, where his mother was painting his little sister's fingernails, and flew up the stairs.  
  
"Ooh! Quidditch!" Melody said, spilling over the nail polish bottle in excitement as she rushed into the family room, where she saw Sirius and James sitting on brooms, timing Harry. Melody grabbed her own broom from the closet and got on, pushing off and hovering near the ceiling, looking over her dad's shoulder at the stopwatch.  
  
Meanwhile, Harry was going on a fast chase through the bedrooms upstairs, following the Snitch as closely as he could. He followed it around the guest room, then lost it as he left. He looked around with eagle eyes and saw it reflected in the mirror, trying to hide behind the post at the top of the stairs. Harry zoomed to it and caught it in his hand.  
  
"I got it!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, diving down the stairs and flying back into the family room.   
  
"New record, Harry!" James said. "Forty seconds!"  
  
"Yaaay!" Melody said, clapping. "Good job, Harry!" she said, giving him a high-five.  
  
"It's gonna be you and me, Melody," Harry said. "We're the unbeatable Keeper-and-Seeker team!"  
  
"All right, let's go, me and Sirius against you and Melody," James said to Harry.  
  
"We're going to kick your butt!" Harry said.  
  
"Again!" Melody added.   
  
"All right, you little kids! Let's see what you've got!" Sirius said.  
  
"Hey! I'm ten!" Harry said. "And I'm almost eleven!"  
  
"And I'm nine!" Melody added. "I'm almost ten!"  
  
"All right, let's go!" James said. But they never got the chance.  
  
"JAMES CHRISTOPHER POTTER!" Lily Potter's voice boomed through the house. "HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU, NO QUIDDITCH IN THE HOUSE!!!!!!" She came to the door of the family room, fuming, her face bright red. Harry wouldn't have been surprised if smoke had started pouring out her ears.  
  
"But Lily, it's raining!" James said.  
  
"Don't you 'but Lily' me!" she said furiously. "I don't want to hear it! Now give me the brooms!"  
  
Everyone who was mounted groaned.   
  
"Oh, come on, Mom," Harry protested.   
  
"Yeah!" Melody said. "We were just having fun!"  
  
"Remus!" Lily said, noticing him sitting in a chair, reading a book on sea monsters. "You were going to let them get away with this?"  
  
Remus looked up and shrugged. "You think I could talk them out of it?"  
  
"Argh!" Lily groaned and threw up her hands. "What am I going to do with you people?" She Summoned all the brooms, causing Sirius, James, Harry, and Melody to land on various pieces of furniture around the room. Sirius ended up on top of a very tall bookcase and glared at Lily for several moments before Apparating onto the floor.  
  
Just then the doorbell rang. "You, my friends, are saved by the bell," Lily said sternly, pointing a finger at everyone in the family room. She walked out of the room and to the door.  
  
"What's she on about?" Sirius asked, plopping down on the couch. James shrugged.  
  
"It's over my head." He sat down in a chair and Melody climbed onto his lap. Harry sat on the couch next to Sirius, exhausted from his fast-paced ride around the house.   
  
"Melody! Harry! Alex is here!" Lily called from the front hallway.   
  
"Alex!" Harry and Melody cried in unison, jumping off their respective seats and rushing into the front hall. There they met up with a silvery-blond haired boy the same age as Melody and rushed up the stairs to Harry's room.  
  
Lily and her best friend, Melody, who was the younger Melody's namesake, walked into the family room.  
  
"Melody!" Sirius said happily.  
  
"Hey, you," Melody said, walking over to the couch and sitting down next to him.   
  
Melody had been like a fifth Marauder at Hogwarts, but Lily had stopped her from participating in a great deal of the Marauders' stunts. She and Sirius had always been eyeing each other, but that fizzled out when Melody made the mistake of marrying Lucifer Malfoy. A little too late she discovered he was Voldemort's brother and tried to leave, but Lucifer was intent on keeping his secret and raising Alex to be Dark.   
  
Melody wouldn't have any of this, so she poisoned Lucifer's food one night at dinner and escaped with Alex to Hogwarts, where she confided in Albus Dumbledore and he allowed her to stay there as the head of the Dueling Club so she would be safe from her husband and Voldemort. Melody somehow divorced him without Lucifer ever discovering where she was. She was now a single woman and had been visiting Lily and James's house as often as possible.  
  
It turned out that she and Sirius still had major sparks, and they had been flirting nonstop since Melody's divorce.  
  
"So, how's Alex?" Sirius asked.  
  
"He's a sweetie," Melody smiled. "An absolute doll. I don't know how I raised such a polite child, what with my bad influence and his stupid father cussing left and right, but somehow I did. I'm beginning to think he was switched at birth," Melody laughed. "But then, he looks so much like me and his dad there's no way he's not mine."  
  
Meanwhile, Lily was glaring at James, who appeared to be falling asleep in his chair. He felt Lily's gaze on him and opened his eyes to see her unwavering glare. "What now?" he asked.  
  
"So you're going to sit all alone in a chair now, and not even let me sit next to you?" Lily demanded.  
  
"There's room right here," James patted his legs. Lily smiled and rolled her eyes, but walked over and sat on his lap anyway. James leaned back in the chair and closed his eyes, pulling his wife to his chest. Lily studied his face, hardly believing she had already been married to him for ten years. She pushed his unruly chair out of his eyes and leaned back against his chest.  
  
"You look tired, James," Melody said, raising her eyebrows.  
  
"Strenuous...athletic...activity..." James mumbled.  
  
"Oh yeah, clicking a stopwatch is SO strenuous," Lily said sarcastically.  
  
"What was he clicking a stopwatch for?" Melody asked.  
  
"He was timing how fast Harry could catch the Snitch," Sirius replied matter-of-factly.  
  
"Quidditch!" Melody said happily. "Awesome!" Lily shot her best friend a Look.  
  
"In the house?" Lily asked.  
  
"Oooh, in the house? I'll have to try--" Melody cut herself off, seeing the murderous look on Lily's face. "I mean, that's awful! What were you two thinking?" But she wasn't being a very good actress. Lily just sighed and rolled her eyes, reminding herself that she was only twenty-eight and she shouldn't be such a stick-in-the-mud.  
  
She looked back at her husband again. His eyes were open, and he was studying her face the same way she was studying his.  
  
"I love you, you know," Lily whispered.   
  
"I know," James whispered back. He leaned forward, pulling his wife closer to him. "I love you too," he murmured, just before their lips met.  
  
It was funny; Lily got just as lightheaded from James's kisses now as she had when she was a teenager. She had expected marriage to be a little more serious, maybe, than this. She thought that with children, things might have changed a little, maybe become less romantic. But she was still jsut as in love with James now as she had been the day she had married him, if not more so.  
  
Lily's parents had never been very affectionate toward each other, and she had grown up thinking all marriages were like that. But she had discovered, after marriage, that they weren't. She and James were extremely affectionate toward each other. James had a very sweet child-like innocence about him that Lily loved. Many people thought he held the same vulnerability and naiveness as a small child, too, but he didn't.  
  
James was a lot like Albus Dumbledore in the respect that he was an incredibly powerful wizard, but you wouldn't be able to tell just by looking. When James got mad, it made Lily scared. He was so rarely upset that when he was, it was the kind of anger that made you want to drop through a hole in the ground. It was the kind of anger that made you feel a universe apart would still be too close for comfort. It was the kind of anger that could turn deadly.  
  
Lily had only seen him truly angry, spouting true hatred, once in her life, and she never wanted to see him like that again. It had been right after his father was killed. Lily had been in Professor Dumbledore's office, consulting with him about what to do after she finished at Hogwarts, when James had stormed in, trembling with anger from head to toe.  
  
Lily had looked up in astonishment to see her boyfriend standing rigid, red in the face, trembling in an effort not to break something or scream, with power emanating off of him like radiation off the sun.  
  
"James!" Lily had said, getting up from her chair, wanting to calm him down, but something in his eyes told her this was a problem she could not fix.  
  
"What's wrong?" Dumbledore asked.  
  
"Voldemort," James spat. "He killed my father." Lily could tell he was trying very hard not to yell. Dumbledore's eyes flashed.  
  
"Your father?" he asked. "Why?"  
  
"Lily, you better go," James had said. Lily had nodded and left without asking any questions.  
  
James had never told her about that day, and she had never asked. Just the mention of his father made James's body go rigid. She didn't want to see him that angry again.  
  
But that wasn't important anymore. What was important was that she was with him, and they had a very close-knit, beautiful family. And she loved him and their children more than anything.  
  
"Eww, Lily, you look like a couple of teenagers," Melody's teasing voice broke Lily out of her reverie. Lily broke her kiss with James and turned to look at Melody. She turned around long enough to stick her tongue out and then went back to kissing James. Melody smiled, rolled her eyes, and went back to her conversation with Sirius.  
  
"So, how is it to be a single mom?" Sirius asked.  
  
"It's tough, but I wouldn't trade Alex for anything," Melody said. "Alex has become my whole world." she sighed. "But it's very difficult for me to handle just being single. I love dating. I really miss just being able to go out to a pub and meet someone and wing it. Now, the guy has to meet Alex's approval, and be nice to kids, and he has to understand my schedule,"  
  
Sirius looked a little put-out at the thought of Melody trying to pick up guys. Why couldn't she just pick up him, and they could get on with it? But he nodded anyway. "Must be frustrating."  
  
"Oh, it is," Melody nodded fervently in agreement. "While you all were visiting Salem a couple weeks ago, I met this guy at a Quidditch store. Alex was off in a corner, looking at Quidditch posters, and I was checking out the new Nimbus 2000, when a guy came over and started flirting with me.   
  
"Well, I started flirting back, not thinking much of it, and the next thing I know he's asking me on a date. I agree, and we pick a day and a time, and he says he'll meet me at The Porter at eight,"  
  
Sirius's eyes bulged. "The Porter?" he asked. "That place is really expensive," He knew from personal experience just how expensive it actually was.  
  
"Yes, The Porter," Melody said. "That should have tipped me off right there. The Porter? First date? There was something jerky about this guy.  
  
"So anyway, I'm really excited. I find a gorgeous dress. It's short, and cream-colored, and it sparkles. It fit tight, but not too tight, and it was cut a little low, but still modest, and it...well, it was really nice. Do you know what I mean? Oh, why am I asking you, you're a guy," Melody said with a wave of her hand. But Sirius had a pretty good picture of what she meant. Melody was painting a very nice mental picture for him.  
  
"Anyway, that's not the point," Melody continued. "The point is that I looked really good---and I mean really good. I put on my necklace that looks like diamonds, and I had my hair done up real nice, and I put on all kinds of make-up and anti-frizz charms and stuff like that. I even had Alex take a picture. Which I think, actually, is right here," Melody dug through her purse and found the picture.   
  
Sirius took it from her hand and looked at it. There was Melody, looking absolutely gorgeous. She smoothed out her dress and turned around for him. It hugged all her curves and showed off her slim figure. Melody winked at him and blew him a kiss. Sirius chuckled and handed the picture back to Melody. "You photograph well," he commented. Melody smiled.  
  
"Thanks." They held each other's gaze for several moments before Melody tore her eyes from his and put the picture back in her purse. "So anyway," she continued. "I'm all ready to go, when the sitter calls at the last minute and says she can't make it. Well, I don't want to cancel at this point, so I decide to dress Alex up and take him with me. It's not the best situation for a date, but, hey, I figure, it's better a date with Alex there than no date at all. And besides, I'd find out all in one blow whether I liked this guy and if he tolerated kids or not.  
  
"So I dress Alex up and tell him to behave, and we go to The Porter. Right off, my date acts like a complete jerk and looks surprised that I have a kid. Well, everyone at the restaurant is real nice about it. They say the cook will do something special for him if he doesn't like anything on the menu, and they conjure up some little toys and stuff for him, and everyone's real nice to him. Meanwhile, my date keeps ignoring him and trying to act like he's not there. He's making all kinds of moves on me, and I'm sitting there thinking, 'what the hell am I doing?'   
  
"Well, here's the kicker: at the end of the meal, the guy's wife marches in. His wife! Can you believe it? What a jerk!" Melody shook her head and tried to write it off as some kind of joke, but Sirius, being the ladies' man that he was, could see that she was still disappointed and hurt by the whole thing.  
  
"Don't worry about it, Mel. There are plenty of guys out there better than him who would want to go out with you." Like me, Sirius added silently.  
  
Melody smiled weakly. "I guess, but still...the nerve!" Melody shook her head with her mouth set in a line, as if she would like to find that guy and deck him.  
  
Lily and James broke apart and Lily leaned against his chest, closing her eyes and thinking that it would be nice to just fall asleep. James started playing with Lily's necklace. It was a gold chain with an "L" pendant on it. Then James's stomach growled. Loudly. Lily's eyes fluttered open and she looked at the clock on the mantle. It was two o'clock.   
  
"Lunch!" Lily cried. She jumped off James's lap and rushed into the kitchen. She ran around the kitchen, flying plates out and onto the table, magically filling glasses with milk and juice, popping a plate of sandwiches on the table, putting bowls full of chips and fruit out, and Summoning in some chairs to put around the table. Five minutes after she had rushed into the kitchen, she rushed out of it.  
  
"Okay, Lunch is ready. You all go sit down, and I'll get the kids," Lily said. James, Melody, Sirius, and Remus got up and walked into the kitchen. Lily walked through the other entrance to the room and walked to the bottom of the stairs.  
  
"Harry! Melody! Alex!" She yelled upstairs. "Lunch!" She heard the pounding of feet overhead, and soon three children were running down the stairs. Lily walked into the kitchen just ahead of them and took her place at the end of the table opposite James. Sirius, Remus, and Melody took up one side of the table, and Harry, Alex and the younger Melody took up the other.   
  
Everyone dug in, and there were varied conversations around the table. Lily just sat back and took it all in, smiling at James from across the table. Her children were full of energy, bouncing in their chairs and bubbling over with excitement about...well, everything.  
  
"Mom!" Harry said from his seat at the other end of the table, next to James.  
  
"Yes?" Lily asked.  
  
"Mom, do you think I'm going to get my Hogwarts letter soon?"  
  
"Of course you are, Harry. It should be coming any day now. It usually comes around the end of July, and your birthday's in a week, so don't worry about it."  
  
"What if I'm not accepted?" Harry asked, an apprehensive look on his face.  
  
"Of course you'll be accepted!" Lily said. "You can do magic, can't you?"  
  
"Well...yeah..." Harry said.   
  
"See? You have nothing to worry about." Lily assured him. "Now eat your lunch." Harry nodded and went back to his food.  
  
After lunch everyone moved back into the family room, full and tired. The adults chatted a little.  
  
"Full moon's coming soon," Remus commented. Lily nodded.  
  
"I started working in the basement last night," she assured him. The basement was Lily's workshop for potions. She kept a wide variety of potions ingredients there, and every month she brewed Remus a potion for his transformations.  
  
After that they all sat in silence, listening to the pattering of the rain on the roof and falling into a sleepy haze. Alex curled up in his mom's lap, and Melody leaned her head against Sirius's shoulder. Lily and James sat next to each other on another couch. Harry layed down with his head in his mom's lap, and Melody sat on her dad's lap. James rested his head on Lily's shoulder.   
  
Lily looked at the two men in her life and smiled. They looked like duplicates of each other with their eyes closed. The only difference was that Harry had Lily's eyes. Melody looked exactly like her mother, except with her father's eyes.  
  
The whole room was very quiet and peaceful, and full of love. Lily felt content, happy, and completely safe. This was pure bliss.   
  
  
Melody, Alex, Sirius, and Remus left sometime later, and then it was just the Potters. They ate dinner and then sat in the family room together. James and Lily put on a little magic show for their children, using some fairly advanced Charms and Transfiguration spells to wow Harry and Melody. James took the petals of a flower sitting on a coffee table and transfigured them into butterflies. Lily summoned several of Melody's dolls and bewitched them to talk and sing and do the can-can.   
  
Then Harry and Melody were sent off to bed, and Lily went down to the basement to work on her potions. She checked Remus's potion and added some dragon's blood to it, then went to check her second potion. The second potion had been stewing for some time now, and it was almost complete. She added a little boomslang skin to it and then made an entry in her logbook about the status of the potions. She moved onto her third potion, which was an experiment she had started a little while ago. She was trying to make a potion that could fight one of the Unforgivable Curses. A Will-Strengthening potion could already pretty much fight off the Imperius Curse, but the Cruciatus Curse was very hard to block--almost impossible, in fact--and everyone knew that Avada Kedavra couldn't be blocked at all.  
  
Lily knew it was silly to try and fight death with a potion, but if she could come up with something that could help Aurors fight off the Unforgivable Curses, it would be worth it. She was constantly worrying about James and his work as an Auror. Lily was actually an Auror too, but she wasn't working in the field like James. She was working as a teacher at Hogwarts and helping Dumbledore with whatever he asked her to. Dumbledore was now in charge of the Aurors and basically running the Ministry as well, because all the Minister did was take advice from Dumbledore.  
  
Lily had taken the place of Potions Master several years ago. Snape had been killed by Voldemort after being found out as a spy, and Lily was the most qualified person for the job. Professor Vector had become head of Slytherin House.   
  
Lily kept experimenting, keeping careful logs of all her experiments in a notebook. She kept adding things to it until James came downstairs and told her to stop.  
  
"Lily, honey, it's midnight," James said gently, putting his hands on her shoulders. Lily sighed and rubbed her eyes, finishing a final documentation in her notebook, and turning around, falling into her husband's arms.  
  
"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I guess I got carried away. I'm just...worried, that's all. I want to find some way to help you and the other Aurors."  
  
"I know, Lily, but I'll be fine. Don't worry about me."  
  
"You can't guarantee you'll be fine," Lily said, closing her eyes and squeezing James.  
  
"I would never leave you and Harry and Melody here alone."  
  
"Not on purpose, but James, some things are just out of your control!" Lily cried, her voice cracking.  
  
"Shh," James said as Lily started crying. He rubbed her back and let her cry. Lily closed her eyes and took in deep, shaky breaths, calming herself down. She pulled back and wiped away the tears on her face. "You are so beautiful," James told her, pushing her hair out of her face. He kissed her, and then they walked up the stairs to their room.  
  
Lily changed into her nightgown and fell into bed beside James, exhausted. He fell asleep right away, and Lily could hear his soft snores in the dark. But even though she was desperately tired, she couldn't fall asleep. She had a horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach. It took her a long time to find sleep, and when she did, it was troubled.  
  
  
It was peaceful in the kitchen. Lily was feeding Harry and James was finishing his dinner. Then they heard the front door break open and fly off its hinges. The house was shadowed in dark magic.  
  
Lily jerked her head with a gasp, letting the spoon she was holding clatter to the floor. "Voldemort," she whispered, here eyes widening in fear.  
  
"Lily, take Harryl and go! It's him! Go! Run! I'll hold him off--"  
  
"But James!" Lily protested even as she gathered up Harry in her arms.  
  
"GO!" James yelled at her, and he rushed to try and stoop Voldemort as Lily ran out the back door. "James, you idiot!" she whispered, turning to lookback at the house. "Just because you're an Auror..." She let the tears slip down her face. Then she turned to rin into the night, but the glass window behind her exploded and broken glass rained over her.  
  
Lily stumbled forward from the power of the blast, then whirled around to face Voldemort.  
  
"Move," he said coldly. "Give up the baby."  
  
"Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!" Lily cried, holding Harry tightly to her chest. He was now crying.  
  
"Stand aside, you silly girl...stand aside, now..."  
  
"Not Harry, please, no, thake me, kill me instead--"  
  
"Shutup and move!" Voldemort roared. Lily was crying freely now. Sobbing, she sank to her knees.  
  
"Not Harry! Please...have mercy...have mercy..." she sobbed, knowing her attempts were futile, but she had to try. She had to make an attempt to save Harry. She couldn't give up her baby!  
  
"Avada Kedavra!" Voldemort screeched.  
  
"No!" Lily cried before her world was blown away in a flash of blinding green light.  
  
She saw Harry in a cupboard, filled with spiders. He was rudely awaken bu a rapping on the door. He looked the same age here as he was now, at home, except he looked like skin and bones, his glasses were held together with tape, his clothes were far too large, and...he had the strangest lightning bolt scar on his forehead.  
  
Harry exited the cupboard and Lily followed him. He walked into the kitchen. Lily recognized her sister, Petunia, snapping at Harry because he was being too slow and telling him to keep an eye on the bacon while she got Dudley up.  
  
"How dare you speak to my child that way!" Lily shrieked indignantly, but Petunia didn't say anything. Harry didn't flinch. They couldn't hear her.  
  
Lily watched in sorrow as she saw her child being mistrated, his Hogwarts letters burned, his future being destroyed. They ended up un a small cabin, a little out to sea, running from the Hogwarts letters. Lily was meserable. Then the door busted in, and she saw Rubeus Hagrid in the doorway.  
  
"Hagrid!" Lily cried, smiling. If Hagrid was here, it was going to be all right. Then time started to speed up.  
  
She saw Harry at Diagon Alley, then Hogwarts, then flying, making the Quidditch team as the youngest player in a hundred years, then finding a three-headed dog, making friends, helping Hagrid with a dragon, then getting past a series of obstacles to find one of his professors standing by the Mirror of Erised, and finding the Sorcerer's Stone, then almost getting killed by Voldemort.   
  
TIme sped up again. Lily saw it go faster, the trials of Harry's second year and defeating the basilisk. Third year. He met Lupin, and Sirius, and Peter. Peter had betrayed them, and Harry had perviously thought Sirius was evil, and for some reason Sirius had been sent to Azkaban and had escaped. Time then sped up even more.  
  
The events of fourth year and the Triwizard Tournament went by in a blur, and slowed to normal time as Harry was tied to a tombstone and had blood taken from his arm, allowing Voldemort to rise. Just when Harry was about to be killed, just when Voldemort started saying "Avada Kedavra," Lily woke up, screaming, in a cold sweat.  
  
"Lily!" James said, sitting up beside her.  
  
"The dream!" Lily gasped, choking out sobs. "It came back,"  
  
"But...you...you...you haven't had that dream since..."  
  
"Melody was born," Lily whispered.  
  
"Was it the same as last time?"  
  
"No...there was more this time. I saw...I saw what happened after Voldemort killed me."   
  
"What was it? What happened?" James pressed, but Lily shook her head.  
  
"I don't want to talk about it," she said, putting a hand to her forehead and getting out of bed. She absentmindedly wandered out into the hallway and down to Harry's room. She opened his door and looked inside. He was sleeping peacefully, undisturbed, bathed in moonlight from his open window.  
  
"Lily, what are you doing?" James whispered, coming up behind her.  
  
"Checking on the kids," Lily said. She closed Harry's door and padded down the hall to Melody's room. She opened the door and looked at her precious daughter. She walked over to her bed and kneeled down beside it.  
  
"Melody wasn't in the dream," Lily said softly.  
  
"She wasn't?" James asked. "But then she wouldn't be, would she, if you and I got killed when Harry was just a little baby."  
  
"I think it was around the time I got pregnant," Lily said. She shivered. "It just seemed so...real, somehow. It was so vivid and detailed, I...I felt like it had actually happened."  
  
"What did you see?" James asked, sinking down on the floor next to her.  
  
"Harry...he was living with my sister, Petunia. They treated him horribly. They made him live in a cupboard, filled with spiders...he had to wear clothes that were too big for him...he looked underfed...he never got a birthday present...his Christmas presents were things like a single tissue or a toothpick...he got warmer gifts from his best friend's mom than he did from his own aunt and uncle." Lily's eyes brimmed with tears, but she continued. "He never knew what it felt like to be loved...he was lied to about his parents and his heritage for years...his aunt and uncle tried to burn and tear apart all his Hogwarts letters, and they kept being delivered, too. They would have destroyed his future, had it not been for Hagrid's efforts. I wouldn't have thought...my own sister...but then, she always hated magic. And...oh God, James, it's just horrible!  
  
"He didn't meet Remus until his third year at Hogwarts, and he lived that year thinking Sirius was a convict. And for some reason, Sirius had been locked in Azkaban for thirteen years. When he finally managed to escape, Harry thought he had killed us and didn't learn the truth until the end of the year...I'm not really sure what all that was about...but can you imagine, James? Harry, never knowing us? Never knowing Sirius? Remus? And Melody wasn't even in the dream at all!  
  
"And then after Harry learned the truth about Sirius, Sirius had to go into hiding. He looked horrible, with waxy skin and matted hair, and his bones sticking out. He had to stay in Animagus form almost all the time, and when he was a human, he started to act like a dog. He was far away from the Sirius we know. It was just all so awful."   
  
Lily looked down at Melody as James wrapped an arm around her.   
  
"And my poor little Melody," Lily whispered. "You didn't even exist."  
  
She stroked her daughter's hand and felt a wet liquid on its surface. Lily took her fingers away and looked at them, discovering, with shock, that they were covered in blood. She turned her daughter's hand over and saw that the lifeline on her palm was bleeding. As she brought her hand to her mouth, Lily saw that her lifeline was bleeding too.   
  
"James!" she shrieked.  
  
"Lily! Your hand!" He cried, grabbing for her hand and taking his arm off her. As he did so, he realized his own palm was bleeding and saw that he had left a mark of blood on the back of Lily's nightgown.  
  
"Harry!" Lily cried, jumping up from the floor and running into Harry's bedroom.   
  
She turned up both his palms, but there was nothing wrong with them. They sat innocently in her hands, completely unmarked. Lily looked at her own palm to see if it was normal, and if it had just been another dream.  
  
Her lifeline was still bleeding.  



	3. Chapter Two: Diagon Alley

A/N: Okay, hi peeps! First I want to thank you all for reading my Lily fic (as I call it) because this story is sooooo much fun to write!! :) And I don't know if I started the next chapter of Ginny's Hogwarts or not and I would go check but my brother's on the other computer where all my Ginny files are saved...:( This computer is brand-new and has like absolutely nothing on it and the only reason I'm posting my Lily fic is because I actually have it saved on a disk. (*gasps from the audience*) Anyway, in this chapter...well, I'm not going to tell you! :P Just read and review please!   
  
Two  
Diagon Alley  
  
"Mom! Dad! I got my Hogwarts letter!" Harry yelled, running down the stairs.  
  
"Wonderful!" Lily said, looking up from the book she was reading on the effects of certain potions ingredients. "Did you open it?"  
  
"Not yet," Harry said. "I want you and Dad to be here,"  
  
"JAMES!" Lily bellowed. "Come here!"  
  
The sliding door from outside opened and shut, and footsteps walked through the kitchen and into the family room.  
  
"What, Lily?" Came a voice from the doorway, but no one was there. Lily heard somebody giggling. "Hi!" came Melody's voice.  
  
"James," Lily scolded.  
  
"What?" James asked. "Your cloak," Lily put her hands on her hips.  
  
"Oh, my cloak!" James said, ripping off his invisibility cloak and appearing out of thin air, Melody perched on his shoulders.  
  
"Harry got his letter," Lily said  
  
"Open it, Harry!" James said, noticing the unopened envelope in Harry's hand. He ripped it open and unfolded it, reading the letter with excited eyes.  
  
"Where's your list of supplies? Lily asked. Harry forked it over.  
  
"Wonderful," Lily said. "This looks like a trip to Diagon Alley!"  
  
"Diagon Alley!?" Harry and Melody shrieked in happiness. They had heard so much about it, but never actually been there. It was too dangerous for them to all go out as a family.   
  
"I think we'll be able to go in about..." -Lily considered the status of her potion- "...oh, say, two days,"  
  
Harry and Melody cheered and bounced around the room.  
  
  
  
"Happy Birthday, Harry!" Lily smiled as Harry came down the stairs.  
  
"Thanks, mom!" Harry said, smiling and sitting down at the table.  
  
"I fixed you some blueberry pancakes, and bacon, and scrambled eggs, and toast, and here's some syrup, and jelly, and a glass of milk, and some orange juice, and your silverware-OH! And butter!" Lily said, zooming around the kitchen and setting plates and glasses and things down in front of Harry.  
  
"Thanks!" Harry said, smiling and digging in. "It's delicious!" he said, with his mouth full of blueberry pancakes. Lily beamed and walked out of the kitchen to the bottom of the stiars.   
  
"Ohm James! You better get down here while I'm still in the mood for cooking!" she called up. "You, too, MelodY!"  
  
Lily was an excellent cook, but she was very tempermental and only cooked when she was 'in the mood.' If you missed mealtime, you were on your own. And if you missed a special meal, you had to feel Lily's wrath for a day afterwards.  
  
James and Melody came bounding down the stairs and rushing into the kitchen. Lily smiled, satisfied, and cooked up another batch of blueberry pancakes.  
  
When they were done, Lily cleared the plates with a wave of her wand.  
  
"And now, presents!" she announced, ushering everyone into the family room. "Accio presents!" she called as soon as everyone was seated. Three dinky little packages flew down the stairs and landed on the coffee table in front of Harry. His face fell, and he stared, blinking, at the tiny packages in front of him.  
  
"And the rest of them!" Lily glared at the stairs. Huge packages zoomed down and landed, covering the table and making huge piles up to Lily's chest. "That's better!" she said, satisfied. Harry smiled widely and picked up the first package, ripping it open. It was a bag of joke products.   
  
He kept opening, present after present, boxes of candy and jokes and Quidditch robes (with his favorite player's name on the back), Quidditch Through the Ages, and a broom servicing kit. Finally there was only one present left. It was a long, thin, package, almost longer than the coffee table.   
  
Harry ripped off the paper and tore open the box. Inside lay a brand-new Nimbus 2000. Harry stood, speechless, gaping at it. Then he lifted it out of the box, got on it, and started zooming around the house, screaming at the top of his lungs.   
  
"I'll take that as a thank-you!" Lily yelled as Harry zoomed back into the family room. Harry stopped flying, hopped off, ran over to his mother, and gave her a huge hug. "Thanks, Mom!" Then he ran over to his dad and hugged him too. "Thanks, Dad!"  
  
"You're welcome," Lily and James said at the same time.   
  
"Hey, Melody, do you want to go for a ride?" Harry asked. "Yeah!" Melody said, her eyes lighting up. She and Harry hopped on the broom and took off.   
  
"Hey! No!" Lily yelled. "You two take that outside! And take your father's cloak!" Harry and Melody came back and Lily gave them the cloak. "Now beat it!" she said, smiling. She sighed and collapsed on the couch next to James, leaning her head on his shoulder.   
  
"So, are you ready for Diagon Alley?"  
  
  
  
"All right, all right, let's move it, people!" Lily yelled the next morning just after breakfast. James, Melody, and Harry hurried into the family room. Lily flicked her wand at the fireplace and soon a brightly lit fire was crackling.   
  
"Harry, do you have your Hogwarts list?" Harry nodded. "James, do you have your potion?" James nodded. "Melody, are you ready?" Melody finished fussing with her hair and nodded.   
  
"What do you guys need the potion for again?" Harry asked.   
  
"It's called a Polyjuice Potion, Harry, and it's so no one will recognize us."  
  
"How will nobody recognize you?"  
  
"We're going to turn into someone else," Lily replied.   
  
"Who are you turning into?"Melody asked, alarmed.  
  
"Melody and Sirius," Lily replied.   
  
"Shouldn't we be taking some of the potion too?" Harry asked. "I mean, since we look so much like you."  
  
"Well, I thought about it, and decided we'd just have to risk it," Lily shrugged. "It would be too complicated. Well, here we go!" she pulled out her potion. "You ready, James?"  
  
"Ready as I'll ever be," James shrugged and pulled out his potion. They both drank at the same time and started transforming. Harry and Melody watched in shock as their parents started changing and molding into the familiar faces of Melody and Sirius.  
  
"Melody is so much skinnier than me," Lily-now-Melody complained, looking down at her very slightly loose outfit.   
  
"You're gorgeous, Lily," James-now-Sirius said. "And remember, you've had two children," Lily-now-Melody made a face. "Besides, what are you complaining about?" James-now-Sirius added. "Sirius has far too many muscles." Melody and Harry giggled.   
  
"Let's go!" Melody said impatiently.   
  
"Okay, okay," Lily-now-Melody said, grabbing the jar of Floo powder from the mantle and throwing a handful into the fireplace. "You first, James," James stepped in, yelled "Diagon Alley!" and disappeared. "Now you, Harry," Harry did the same. "And you, Melody," Lily-now-Melody bid her daughter good-bye, looked around the house one more time, magically locked all the doors with her wand, threw in a little more Floo powder, walked into the fireplace, and left.  
  
When Lily came to a dizzying stop at Diagon Alley, she looked around for her family and walked over to them. "All right," she said. "All here?" everyone nodded.  
  
"First stop, Gringotts!" James said, and he led the family down the street to the large white building. They entered and walked up to a desk. Harry and Melody looked around, fascinated, at all the goblins as they went about their work.   
  
"I'd like to go to Lily and James Potter's safe," James said, sliding a key over the desk. The goblin examined the key and nodded.   
  
"Very well. I will have a Dorfackle take you there. Dorfackle!" Another goblin came over. "Lily and James Potter's safe," he said, handing Dorfackle the key. Dorfackle nodded and motioned for them all to follow him.  
  
They walked down a narrow stone hallway which got very steep. They stopped walking and Dorfackle whistled. A small cart came hurtling toward them, and everybody climbed in. The cart went hurtling down the tracks, making turns so fast Harry couldn't keep track of them. It was an underground maze of train tracks, safes, vaults, and twisting passageways. Harry was afraid they might get lost. Was Dorfackle sure they were going the right way?  
  
Then the cart slowed down and stopped, and Dorfackle hopped out first, opening the vault with James's key. Harry's and Melody's mouths dropped open at the sight of piles and piles of Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts.   
  
"Oh my God, we're rich!" Melody exclaimed. James chuckled.   
  
"That happens when you hardly go anywhere except work for eleven years," he said. "Well, fill your pockets! We have a lot of shopping to do," Melody and Harry dove at the piles of money and filled their money pouches until they were bulging with Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts. James and Lily smiled at each other and each took their share. They climbed back in the cart and went hurtling back up to the main of Gringotts.  
  
They walked back out into the sunlight of Diagon Alley. "Where can we go first?" Harry asked excitedly. "Well, why don't you and I go get your school stuff, and James and Melody can go off wherever they want."  
  
"Why don't I go with Harry?" James suggested. "I mean, Melody might want to go shopping for girly stuff, and I don't know anything about that. I wouldn't be much help to her," Lily rolled her eyes.  
  
"Oh yeah, and you would be SUCH a help to Harry," she said sarcastically. "You two would probably spend all your time in Quality Quidditch Supplies and accomplish absolutely nothing."  
  
"What's wrong with Quidditch?" Harry said. "I need some stuff to really show off my broom at school!"  
  
"You won't be taking that broom to school," Lily said sternly.  
  
"Why not?" Harry exclaimed furiously.   
  
"It says right on your list, first years aren't allowed their own brooms," Lily said. Harry took out his list, unfolded it, and scanned it until he got to the bottom. There it was, in bold black letters:  
  
PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS AREN'T ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS  
  
"Darn," Harry said.  
  
"Come on, let's go, Harry," Lily said, ushering him off. "We'll meet back in front of Gringotts in an hour!" Lily yelled over her shoulder. "Okay!" James yelled back.   
  
"First stop, Madam Malkin's!" Lily declared. "You need your school robes." She walked him inside the store.   
  
"Madam Malkin!" Lily said, spotting the owner of the store and waving. "I have a Hogwarts student for you!"   
  
"Wonderful!" Madam Malkin smiled, walking over. "Oh, Ms. Cauldwell, those dress robes you ordered finally came in!"  
  
Lily leaned close to her ear and whispered, "It's Lily Potter,"  
  
"Oh!" Madam Malkin said, her eyes widening. "Sorry about that. I'll remember the right color this time." she smiled and went about business as if nothing was wrong. Lily smiled, satisfied that her secret hadn't been blown. She saw Madam Malkin lead Harry over to a fitting stool and went to go browse the dress robes.  
  
Harry was put on a stool and had a robe slipped over his head. Madam Malkin started fitting it. "Hello," said the boy next to Harry in a drawling voice. "Hogwarts, too?"  
  
"Yes," Harry nodded.  
  
"My father's next door buying books and mother's up the street looking at wands. Then I'm going to drag them off to look at racing brooms. I don't see why first years can't have their own. I think I'll bully father into getting me one and I'll smuggle it in somehow,"  
  
Harry smiled and thought it sounded like the kind of thing Sirius would do--but without the bullying. "No kidding!" he agreed.   
  
"So, have you got your own broom?" the boy asked. Harry nodded, a big smile on his face.  
  
"I got a Nimbus 2000 for my birthday!"  
  
"Really?" the boy asked, looking slightly impressed. "Play Qudditch at all?"  
  
"All the time!" Harry replied. "My dad's had me on a broom practically since I could walk. He says I'm an exceptional flier and I'll be a Seeker as soon as I'm old enough to get on a house team,"  
  
"Me too," the boy said in agreement, giving Harry a smile. "Father says it'll be a crime if I'm not picked for my house team--looks like we'll be competition for each other if we get in the same house. Know what house you'll be in?"  
  
"Not really, but I hope I'm in Gryffindor. That's the house my dad was in. But then, my mom was in Ravenclaw, so I don't know for sure." Harry shrugged. "What about you?"  
  
"I'll be in Slytherin, all our family have been. I don't think Ravenclaw would be too bad--but imagine being in Hufflepuff, I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?"  
  
Harry almost laughed. "I wouldn't really leave," he said. " I mean, from what I've heard, Hufflepuffs are nice, but they're not really known for their glory, are they?"  
  
"I'll say," the new boy shook his head. By then their fitting was almost done, and Lily-now-Melody came over to watch.  
  
"You're not here with HER, are you?" asked the boy, looking at Lily-now-Melody with contempt. Harry blinked.  
  
"Yes," he said slowly. "Why?"  
  
"She's my--" the boy cut himself off. "She USED to be my aunt." Harry blinked, his brain slowly making the connection. Lily looked like Melody--Melody used to be married to Lucifer Malfoy--Lucifer Malfoy was Lucius Malfoy's brother (not to mention Voldemort's)--Lucius Malfoy had a son named Draco--was Harry talking to Draco Malfoy???  
  
"Are you Draco Malfoy?" Harry asked.  
  
"Yes," Draco said. "Who are you?"  
  
Before Harry could answer, Draco was told he was done and stepped down. Harry sighed in relief. That could have turned into a very sticky situation. Several seconds later, Harry was done too. He paid for his robes and left with Lily-now-Melody.  
  
"Who was that you were talking to, and why was he giving me funny looks?" she demanded.   
  
"Draco Malfoy, and you look like Melody, remember?" Harry supplied. Lily gasped, realizing the significance of that situation. "Is his father here? Did he tell you?"  
  
"He said his father was buying books," Harry said as they headed toward the book shop. Lily quickly steered away from the book shop and headed to the Apothecary instead. "We can buy your books later," she said, knowing that running into Lucius Malfoy could cause serious problems.  
  
They entered the Apothecary, which had a horrible smell, but held absolutely fascinating things like claws, beetle eyes, and fangs. Lily went up to the counter and asked for a basic store of potions ingredients for Harry, then asked for things like boomslang skin, unicorn horns, and gillyweed that students didn't normally use. Lily came out of the store with a lot more potions ingredients than Harry.  
  
"If you fail my class, I will kill you," Lily whispered to him as they left that store. "By the time I'm done with you, you're going to know these potions ingredients like the back of your hand!" Harry gulped. He didn't feel Potions would exactly be his strongest subject, but then again, having your mom as the teacher had to have good points too, didn't it? She wouldn't seriously FAIL him, would she???  
  
"All right, on to the other most important school supplies!" Lily declared. "Your cauldron and scales!" She bought him a nice, sturdy pewter cauldron and a set of high-quality scales. "These are the best they make," she told him. "100% accuracy guaranteed," His mother took potions a little too seriously.   
  
"Well, let's try the book shop again, shall we?" Lily said, and they walked back to Flourish and Blotts. Harry gave the owner his list, and Lily went off to see if there were any new books on Potions or ingredients. They left and proceeded to buy Harry a nice telescope for Astronomy. Then Lily realized an hour had passed and they walked back to Gringotts. Lily took out a flask and swallowed some more of the Polyjuice Potion, securing her appearance as Melody for another hour.  
  
"Hi," James-now-Sirius said, waving happily at Harry and Lily-now-Melody as they approached. Melody waved at them too, but quickly, because she was using both her hands to support a-  
  
"Cat?" Lily demanded. "James! You let her buy a cat!?"  
  
James shrugged. "It was really sweet and she really wanted it and after all, Harry had his Nimbus, and we're going to get him a pet for school, right? So I figured we should let Melody get a cat if she wanted a cat." Lily sighed in defeat. "Oh, fine," she said, looking over Melody's gray tabby. "Have you named him yet?"  
  
"It's a she!" Melody announced. "And I've named her Athena," she set Athena down on the ground.   
  
"Are you sure she's not going to run away?" Lily asked.   
  
"Yes," Melody said. "Athena's a good cat!"  
  
"So, what's this about me and a pet?" Harry inquired.   
  
"Pick a pet! Any pet! Owl, cat, or toad!" James said.   
  
"I want an owl," Harry said. He'd always wanted his own owl, and his family had never had one, for fear they would get caught. They headed to Eeylops Owl Emporium. Harry picked out a snowy white one.   
  
"I wonder what I should call it?" Harry wondered, examining his owl.  
  
"Aphrodite!" Melody said.   
  
"No!" Harry objected. "What is it with you and all these Roman goddesses?"  
  
But Harry's owl seemed to have taken a liking to the name Aphrodite already. "We are not going to call my owl Aphrodite!" Harry insisted. The owl hooted when Harry said 'Aphrodite.'  
  
"No!" Harry cried. Melody started laughing. "Guess you don't have a choice!" she stuck her tongue out at Harry. Harry glared at her.  
  
"All right, on to Ollivander's!" Lily declared. They started walking to the wand shop, but before they got there, Lily saw a familiar face in the crowd, ran up to her, and said "Gertrude! I haven't seen you in ages!" the woman looked at Lily-now-Melody with a surprised look on her face.   
  
"M-melody?" she asked in slight disbelief. She hadn't really been friends with Melody Cauldwell at Hogwarts, but Melody sure looked happy to see her. Had she missed something...?  
  
Melody wrapped her in a hug and whispered in her ear, "It's Lily,"  
  
"Oh!" Gertrude said. "Hi!" she pulled back from the hug. "I haven't seen you in ages!"  
  
"Well, Gertrude Nessom, you've been pretty hard to get a hold of yourself!"  
  
"Oh, it's not Nessom anymore--it's Longbottom!" Gertrude announced, showing off her sparkling wedding ring.   
  
"Wow, so much has happened!" Lily said, shaking her head. Gertrude nodded fervently in agreement. Harry, Melody, and James-now-Sirius came up behind Lily.   
  
"Oh my goodness!" Gertrude gasped upon seeing Harry and Lily. "They look so much like their parents!" she whispered. "I have two of my own," she said. "What a handful!"  
  
Lily laughed. "Tell me about it. This is Harry, and this is Melody." she said, pointing.  
  
"They should be around here somewhere..." Gertrude said distractedly. "Neville! Nicole! Come here!" she called. In several minutes a boy and a girl appeared by her side. "Neville, Nicole, this is Harry and Melody. " she introduced. The kids looked at each other and waved.   
  
Lily and Gertrude got into a loooong conversation about Hogwarts and the good old days and blah blah blah...Harry started talking to Neville about Quidditch and Hogwarts and school houses. They were just about to discuss the Sorting Ceremony when James broke up Lily and Gertrude's conversation and they headed to Ollivander's.  
  
"And she says I waste time," James muttered under his breath as they left. "I heard that," Lily glared over her shoulder. James shrugged. They reached Ollivander's and entered the dusty old wand shop.  
  
"Hello," Mr. Ollivander said upon their entry. "Harry Potter. I've been expecting you." He walked up to Harry and looked at him. "You look like James." His eyes flicked to Lily-now-Melody and James-now-Sirius. "Not being accompanied by your parents today, I see." It wasn't a question.  
  
"Ms. Cauldwell," he said, addressing Lily-now-Melody. "Fourteen inches, willow, unicorn hair and dragon heartstring. Very unusual combination. I must say I've never made one like it before, nor will I make one like it again. Very tempermental, wasn't it?"  
  
Lily nodded, recalling Melody's constant battles with her wand, but once she figured out how to work it, it performed excellently.   
  
"Very powerful, that wand was, and excellent for dueling. And Mr. Black!" Mr. Ollivander said, turning to James-now-Sirius. "You, too, had an unusual wand. Twelve inches, oak, mermaid hair and sphinx mane. Also the only one of its kind. Also tempermental, correct?"  
  
James got a very Marauder-type look on his face. He nodded. "Had a mind of its own," He remembered the time a Ravenclaw girl named Susie Ackerton (who had a crush on Sirius, which was hardly uncommon, since most girls either had a crush on Sirius or James) had tried to hand Sirius his wand back after he had dropped it in Charms class, and the wand had started letting out great smelly puffs of smoke and making loud noises and launching rocks out its end. When Professor Flitwick had come over to see what all the trouble was, he, too, picked the wand up off the floor (because Susie had dropped it in surprise), and it started smoking and making noises again. It only stopped when Sirius took it back or it was left untouched.   
  
Apparently the wand didn't like being touched by anyone other than Sirius, because Sirius swore he hadn't put any kind of alarm on his wand (which could either be true or untrue--you never knew with Sirius) but James knew he had been telling the truth because he knew when Sirius was lying.   
  
James snapped out of his reverie several moments later to see Harry trying out different types of wands.   
  
"Thirteen inches, cherry, dragon heartstring and demiguise hair. Very unusual combination, but...go on, give it a try."  
  
Harry took the wand and waved it about. Blue and gold sparks flew out of it. "Interesting..." Mr. Ollivander said, taking the wand back and putting it into its box. "It will be very interesting to see what becomes of you, Mr. Potter," he said, taking the box up to the register. "Very interesting..." he muttered, accepting the ten Galleons Harry paid for his wand.   
  
"I'm sorry, but what's interesting?" Harry said, curiosity getting the better of him.   
  
"Do you know what demiguise hair can be used for?" Mr. Ollivander asked.   
  
"Er, no." Harry said.   
  
"Spinning Invisibility Cloaks, Mr. Potter. Makes for a very unique and a very specialized wand---though in what you won't know until you use it. It will be very interesting to see what becomes of you, Mr. Potter," Mr. Ollivander repeated, then bowed them all from his shop.  
  
"Well, that was very...interesting." James said as they walked down the street in no particular direction. Lily groaned. "Don't start, James," she said. James sighed. "Okay, okay," he said. "But only if we can get ice cream!" He sprinted off to Forlean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor. Melody giggled and ran off after him, Athena running at her heels. Lily groaned again.  
  
"What am I going to do with those two?" she asked of Harry.   
  
"I don't know, but would you mind holding Aphrodite?" Harry asked, shoving Aphrodite's cage in Lily's already-full hands and sprinting off after his sister. Lily sighed and reminded herself again that she was only twenty-eight...she was only twenty-eight...she shouldn't be such a stick-in-the-mud...  
  
She met up with Harry, Melody, and James at the ice cream parlor. She set all her packages down on the table they were sitting at and collapsed in a chair. "I got you peanut butter and chocolate with marshmallows," James said, handing Lily a cone of her favorite ice cream over the table.   
  
"So, how do we get sorted into houses?" Harry asked in between bites of his cone.   
  
"Well, all the first years stand in a line, and you get called in alphabetical order, and y-" Lily kicked him under the table.  
  
"James! Can't you let anything be a surprise?" James considered this for a moment. "No," he decided. Lily rolled her eyes. "Well, let this be," she said, giving him a pointed stare. James raised an eyebrow at her. "Lily, it's just the Sorting Ceremony. It's the thing all the rest of the students wish would get over quicker so they could eat. It's no big deal!"  
  
"Well, fine, if you want to spoil the surprise of having to battle a hinkypunk for virtues in bravery, cunning, loyalty, and brains his first night there, by all means, go ahead." Lily considered what she had just said. "Whoops!" she said, putting a hand to her mouth and looking guilty.   
  
"Lily!" James scolded. "Now look what you've gone and done, you hypocrite!" Harry sat there, unblinking, staring with horror at both of his parents. So did Melody. Lily saw the gaze on his face.  
  
"Oh, Harry, don't worry, nobody's been killed, and the exam won't last long, it--"  
  
"Harry, you'll be fine!" James interrupted. "Just do whatever pops into your head first. Trust your instincts to guide you, and the sooner you react, the sooner you can be sorted." They both looked at him reassuringly. Harry just gulped.   
  
  
  
Later that night, Melody and Alex and Sirius and Remus came over. Melody and Harry got the older Melody alone and asked her gravely about the Sorting Ceremony. When she asked why they were so worried, they gave her Lily and James's explanation. Melody started laughing and couldn't stop until she was rolling on the floor.  
  
"Hinky--punks--!" she exclaimed between laughs. "That's a good one!" she snorted and laughed harder. "Duel--bravery--cunning--" she snorted again, and she was laughing so hard tears were streaming down her face. Melody and Harry exchanged a Look and knew their parents had tricked them. When she finally recovered, they asked her what was really involved in the Sorting Ceremony. She just started laughing again ."Can't--believe--you--guys--fell--" (snorts) "--for--that!" She finally calmed down enough to tell about the Sorting Hat (in between giggles, of course), and when she was done, she started laughing again. "Hinkypunks!" she exclaimed, holding her stomach and laughing so hard it didn't even make a sound for several seconds. Melody and Harry rolled their eyes and left.  
  
  
  
A/N: Okay, well I just wanted to thank you pplz who reviewed me and I actually had something to say but now I can't remember what it is...*sigh* Well, anyway, thanx to: The KRACILT's, da Funky One, Moony's Chick, Leah Samson, Niffler, and ~slytheringoddess~  
  
A couple notes to those of you who asked questions in the reviews:  
  
Their lifelines were bleeding because it's an omen.   
  
No, Lily and James are not going to die. The story would be absolutely no fun without them.  
  
And I'm going to shut up before I give anything away.   
  
Bye!  
  
~*Sierra Charm*~  



	4. Chapter Three: The School Train

Chapter Three  
The School Train  
  
It was September first, and they were just about to leave for King's Cross. Melody, Alex, Sirius, Remus, James, Lily, Harry, and the younger Melody were all going to go together. They were all running around the Potters' house, getting ready to leave. Lily was double-checking the whole house to make sure it was safe and secure.   
  
"Lily, don't get so worked up!" Sirius said.  
  
"Well, I won't be coming back for a while, and neither will James, and the house is going to be all alone--"  
  
"The house will not be all alone! I'm going to stay here with Melody and Alex, remember?"  
  
"Oh! Right, right. Well, in that case, I'll have to write you a list--"  
  
"Mom, where are my Hogwarts robes?" Harry yelled down the stairs.  
  
"I just washed them! They're down here in the kitchen!" Lily yelled, grabbing a piece of parchment and a quill.  
  
"Lily, I can't find my wand!" James complained.  
  
"Well, where did you leave it?"  
  
"I don't know!"  
  
"Did you look in the basement?"  
  
"Oh, never mind--here it is!"  
  
"Mom, Harry's owl dropped a dead mouse in my room again!" Melody screeched, coming down the stairs.  
  
"HARRY!" Lily yelled, still writing down a list of things for Sirius.  
  
"What?" Harry said, coming into the kitchen for his Hogwarts robes.  
  
"Clean up the dead mouse in your sister's room,"  
  
"Ew! No way!"  
  
"Harry, it's your owl. I'm not responsible for it." Lily double-checked her two-foot long list.  
  
"Make her cat clean it up," Harry said, gathering up his robes.  
  
"No way!" Melody said, coming into the kitchen. "Athena only goes after LIVE mice."  
  
"Then make Sirius get rid of it, I don't have time for this!" Lily said, scribbling down a grocery list and good meal plan for Sirius. Not that he would use it, but still... Melody and Harry left the kitchen, and Remus entered.  
  
"Lily, have you finished the potion?" he asked.  
  
"The potion!" Lily exclaimed, dropping her quill and running down into the basement. She quickly poured all of Remus's potion into a large thermos (Muggle inventions came in so handy sometimes) and gathered up all her Potions ingredients into jars, packing them into several suitcases. She shrank her experimental potions down to minscule size and sealed them, putting them in a separate case all their own, fires still lit.  
  
She hurried back upstairs and gave Remus the thermos, then put her bags of Potions ingredients on the kitchen table. She finished scribbling down the list of groceries for Sirius and started on a little home maintenance. She had already mentioned curfew, mealtime, snacktime, bedtime, etc. She hardly needed to mention all this, seeing as how Sirius had done this for the past three years, but still...  
  
A huge black dog trotted through the kitchen with a dead mouse in its jaw, slid open the back door, and went across the back lawn to dispose of it. Lily put the final touches on the list of things Sirius was NOT to do with the kids (teach them spells, give them annoying joke products, etc.) just as he came trotting back in the house.   
  
"Sirius!" Lily called before he left the kitchen. He turned back into a human with a POP! and turned to face her. "I have the list for you," she said, handing him the now three-foot-long piece of parchment.  
  
"Good God, woman, what, do you have me running the military now or something?" Sirius asked, shaking his head and muttering at the list as he walked out of the kitchen. Lily just rolled her eyes and went about locking the doors and windows, and checking for intruders. (Of the magical kind, that is.)  
  
"Lily!" Melody yelled, coming into the kitchen. "Lily, have you seen Alex?"  
  
"Alex? No," Lily said, racking her brain. "MELODY!" she yelled.  
  
"What?" Melody said, annoyed, coming to the top of the stairs.  
  
"Have you seen Alex?" Lily asked, popping her head out of the kitchen door.  
  
"Yeah. He's outside. Harry let him borrow the Nimbus."  
  
"Did he borrow James's invisibility cloak too?"  
  
Melody shrugged. "I dunno." She went back to her room.  
  
"JAMES!" Lily thundered, walking back into the kitchen.  
  
"What?" James said, coming in from the family room.  
  
"Did you lend Alex your invisibility cloak?"  
  
"Yeah. He's outside on Harry's Nimbus."  
  
"Thank you," Lily said, walking over to the sliding door, unlocking it, and yelling out into the yard. "ALEX! WE HAVE TO GO!" Lily heard him come zooming in and a second later he appeared in the middle of the kitchen. She closed and locked the sliding door again, took James's cloak and Harry's broom from him, and left the kitchen to let Melody chew him out.   
  
She passed through the family room and gave James his cloak back, passed Harry and Melody lugging Harry's trunk down the stairs, and put Harry's broom back in his room. She then walked back downstairs and into the family room, where everyone was now assembled. Sirius was still going over Lily's absurdly long list and muttering to himself.   
  
"All right, people!" Lily said, clapping her hands to quiet everyone down. "Remember, King's Cross is a Muggle station, so we have to be as Muggle-like as possible. We have two cars that can comfortably seat four each, so besides me, who else can drive?" Everyone looked at each other.   
  
"I can," Melody said.   
  
"Okay, so we need three people to go with Melody, and three people to go with me."  
  
"But I was going to drive my motorcycle!" Sirius complained.  
  
"No," Lily said. "Absolutely not!"  
  
"Fine. But how are you going to get Melody and Alex back here?"  
  
"I will drive them, then Apparate back to King's Cross."  
  
"Wouldn't it be easier if I just drove them back?"  
  
"No!"  
  
"Oh come on, Mom, lighten up a little!" Melody said. Lily sighed and looked at the older Melody.   
  
"It's fine with me," she shrugged. Lily sighed again. "Fine, you can go,"  
  
"Yes!" Melody cheered. She and Alex exchanged high-fives, and Sirius got a very Marauder-ish grin on his face. Lily groaned.  
  
"Okay, and now, before we go, us Marauders have a very important ceremony to perform, so everyone but us and Harry needs to scoot!" James announced.  
  
"Oh no," Lily said as the older Melody ushered Alex and the younger Melody out of the room.  
  
"Out, Lily!" James said, smiling devilishly.  
  
"James, please tell me you're not going to--"  
  
"Out!" he insisted. Lily groaned again and reluctantly left the room. Harry looked at the three Marauders expectantly, and they all suddenly got very grave looks on their faces.  
  
"Harry, this is a very serious matter of business." James said solemnly.   
  
"This is also a very high honor," Sirius said, just as solemnly. They both turned to look at Remus.  
  
"I can't believe we are doing this," Remus said, in just as solemn a tone. Harry laughed shortly.  
  
James pulled out a piece of crinkled, slightly ripped parchment. "Harry, we bestow this sacred piece of parchment to you." Harry blinked at them and took the piece of parchment. He was slightly confused.  
  
"Take out your wand and put it on the sacred document." Sirius instructed. Harry slid his wand out of his pocket and placed it on the parchment.  
  
"Now you must take the oath," Remus said. All the Marauders put their right hands on their chest.  
  
"Repeat after us," James said. Harry nodded.  
  
"I do solemnly swear that I am up to no good," the three Marauders chorused. Harry repeated it, and he looked down at the parchment to see it presenting him with a map--no, not just a map--THE map. The Marauder's Map!  
  
  
  
They arrived at King's Cross Station some time later, and, for those in Melody's car, miraculously in one piece. They walked (or staggered) into the station and walked just past platform nine and stopped right before platform ten.   
  
"Okay, we're going to cross the barrier to platform nine and three-quarters," Lily said.  
  
"We can't go in a large group, obviously, or it would be far too noticeable to all the Muggles. Harry, I'll go with you first, because you have an owl and people are staring." James said. Harry nodded and they pushed his cart over to the barrier. Harry stopped just as they got there.   
  
"Looks pretty solid," Harry gulped. James just smiled.   
  
"Don't worry about it," he said. "But if you want to test, push your cart through." Harry pushed his cart up against the wall, but quite suddenly there was no wall, and Harry was facing a scarlet steam engine and a sign that said: Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. James appeared next to him chuckling.   
  
"Nothing to worry about, eh?" he said, patting Harry on the back and slinging an arm around his shoulders. Harry nodded and looked around. He saw a large family standing over to his right. They all had flaming red hair and freckles. One already had his Hogwarts robes on and was wearing a shiny Prefect's badge. Two twin boys looked to be making fun of the Prefect, and a boy about Harry's age was fighting his mother off him--she was trying to rub a spot off his nose. A girl from that same family who looked Melody's age was begging to go with them.  
  
Harry scanned the crowd again and spotted Neville Longbottom.   
  
"Dad, look, there's the Longbottoms!" Harry announced, pointing.   
  
"Ah, good, let's go talk to them." James said.   
  
"James, where are you going?" came Lily's voice. James and Harry turned around to see Lily, Melody, and Alex walking up to them, Lily dragging a trunk. Just behind them appeared the older Melody, Remus, and Sirius. They also had a trunk.   
  
"The Longbottoms!" James said, pointing.   
  
"Ah," Lily said. She checked her watch. "Well, we don't have much time, but you can go over and say hello if Sirius and Remus'll help me with these blasted trunks,"  
  
James nodded and waved as he, both Melodys, Harry, and Alex walked over to the Longbottoms. "Hey, Neville," Harry said as his dad started talking to Mr. Longbottom.   
  
"Hi, Harry!" Neville waved. He was a round-faced, rather good-natured boy who, like Harry, had been raised by Aurors, and therefore shared his confidence.   
  
"You excited about Hogwarts?"  
  
"Yeah! I can't wait until we get there. I've heard it's a huge old castle with like five stories and tons of staircases and trick doors, and ghosts..." Harry thought about the Marauder's Map.  
  
"Neville," Harry said, interrupting him. "I have something really cool to show you. We just have to get on the train first.  
  
"Really? Well let's go then!" Harry and Neville excused themselves and walked onto the train.  
  
Melody and Alex were having a conversation with Neville's little sister Nicole. "So, you're parents are Aurors, right?" Melody asked. Nicole nodded. "So are mine." Melody said. "What do you do when your parents leave for work? Who do you live with?" Nicole rolled her eyes.  
  
"My mom sends me and Neville off to live with my grandmother. I hate it there. Grandma's a little scary, and there's nothing interesting to do anyway. So your parents are Aurors too, right?"  
  
"Well, mine are," Melody said.  
  
"My mom's Dueling Master at Hogwarts, and I never see my father." Alex said.  
  
"Why?" Nicole asked.  
  
"Because bad things would happen if he did."  
  
"Bad things? What kinds of bad things?"  
  
"I'd rather not get into it," Alex said. Nicole shrugged. "Okay."  
  
"You want to walk around?" Melody asked. They wandered off and looked around at all the parents and kids milling around. They saw two girls about their age talking, one with flaming red hair and freckles, and the other with long brown hair.   
  
"Hi!" Melody said, walking over.   
  
"Hi," the brunette said, smiling. The redhead gave a half-wave.  
  
"You going to Hogwarts?" Melody asked. The brunette shook her head.  
  
"Not until next year,"  
  
"Us too!" Melody smiled. "I'm Melody. This is Nicole, and that's Alex," she introduced.   
  
"I'm Autumn," the brunette said. "And this is Ginny,"   
  
They shook hands, and Alex got a very annoyed Look on his face. "What?" Melody asked, looking at him.   
  
"I'm surrounded by girls." he said. Melody, Ginny, Autumn, and Nicole giggled. "That's it, I'm out of here," Melody just rolled her eyes at him.  
  
Just then the scarlet engine steamed and prepared to leave the station. "Gotta go!" Melody said, waving good-bye and running to say good-bye to her mom.   
  
Her mother, Melody, and Remus were all taking the train to Hogwarts. Her dad was leaving just after the train to go to the Ministry. She was going to go home with Sirius and Alex.   
  
She waved good-bye as the train sped off. Her mother stuck her head out the window and waved back to her. She looked around and found Sirius and James saying good-bye, with Alex standing next to them. She walked over.   
  
"Bye, Dad," she said, giving him a hug.  
  
"Bye, sweetie. I love you," James said, kissing her on the forehead.   
  
"Love you, too, Dad," Melody replied, pecking him on the cheek. She watched him turn and walk back through the barrier. Her dad was so strong, so...fearless. How could he go out and fight Dark wizards, knowing he could end up dead? She shivered at the thought, and for a moment animal panic seized her at the thought of what might happen if he died.  
  
But he's not going to die, she reminded herself. He's going to be fine. She turned back to Alex and Sirius.   
  
"So, are you two ready to have some fun?" Sirius asked, an mischievous smile spreading across his face.  
  
"Oh yeah," Melody and Alex said.  
  
  
Harry and Neville had a compartment way in the back. Just as they were getting settled, a knock came on the door. It slid open and Harry saw the redheaded boy from that large family standing there.   
  
"You two mind if I come in here?" he asked. "All the other compartments are full."  
  
"Sure," Harry smiled. "You need help with your trunk?"  
  
"Yeah, thanks," the boy said. Harry and Neville walked over and helped him drag it in.  
  
"So, what's your name?" Harry asked.  
  
"Ron Weasley,"  
  
"I'm Harry Potter,"  
  
"Neville Longbottom," the boys introduced themselves and shook hands.  
  
"Well, now that that boring bit of business is over, do you like Quidditch?"  
  
Ron's eyes sparked. CHA-CHING!!! He liked these people already. "I love Quidditch!" he said. "The Chudley Cannons are my favorite!"  
  
"Chudley Cannons?" Neville said, wrinkling his nose. "No way! The Wimbourne Wasps are the best!"  
  
Ron shook his head. "Not the Wimbourne Wasps! Cannons, all the way! People don't give enough support to them!"  
  
"Yeah, 'cause they stink," Neville said under his breath.   
  
"I heard that!" Ron said. Harry started laughing.  
  
"Well what's your favorite team?" Ron and Neville demanded.  
  
"I don't have one. But if I did, it would be the Potters!" he declared.  
  
"Your family has a Quidditch team?" Ron asked skeptically.  
  
"Well, not an official one, but we play Quidditch a lot. Inside the house. And my mom yells at us all the time." Harry nodded, smiling.  
  
Neville and Ron started laughing. "So, what was it you were going to show me, Harry?" Neville asked after the laughter had subsided.  
  
"Oh, that!" Harry said. He glanced between Ron and Neville, trying to decided if he could trust Ron or not. Then he shrugged. "Okay, both of you have to keep this an absolute secret," he said. Ron and Neville nodded.   
  
Harry went over to his trunk and took out the Maruader's Map and his wand. He sat down in the center of the compartment and opened his mouth, preparing to say the incantation, but just then the door of their compartment slid open and three girls popped their heads in. Two of them looked remarkably alike.  
  
"Hello!" the one in the middle said. She had bushy brown hair and rather large front teeth. "Oh, are you doing magic?" she asked, noting Harry's wand and the paper. The three girls stepped into the compartment. "Let's see it, then!" she said.  
  
"Uh..." Harry racked his brain for a simple spell. James and Sirius and Melody had been teaching him basic spells since their trip to Diagon Alley. Even though he wasn't technically allowed to do this, somehow they had gotten around it. He looked at the paper and his wand for several seconds before saying the first spell that popped into his head. "Wingardium Leviosa!" he said, and the paper lifted up off the floor and hovered in midair.  
  
Everyone clapped. "That was wonderful!" the girl said. "By the way, I'm Hermione Granger. I've tried a few simple spells like that too, and they all worked." She smiled. "And this is Parvati and Padma Patil. They're twins."  
  
"Hi," Padma and Parvati said, waving.  
  
"Hi," Neville, Harry and Ron said back. "I'm Harry Potter," Harry introduced himself.  
  
"I'm Neville Longbottom,"   
  
"I'm Ron Weasley," they all shook hands.  
  
"Do you mind if we sit down and chat? Hermione asked. "We've just been going around the train introducing ourselves to people and our feet are a little sore. We started way at the front and this is the end."  
  
Harry, Ron, and Neville exchanged looks. They shrugged. "Sure," Ron said.  
  
"Wonderful," Hermione said, and the three girls sat down. The boys sat down across from them. "Well, some of the students are quite friendly, but I must say there are a lot of them that are downright unpleasant."  
  
"Yes, and they're all in Slytherin," Padma said, rolling her eyes. "I hope I don't get put in that house. What houses d'you think you all will be in?"  
  
"I think I'll be in Gryffindor," Neville said. "I hope so. My parents were, but some of my relatives were in Hufflepuff. I don't know what I'll be in. But I do hope it's Gryffindor."  
  
"I agree," Hermione said, nodding. "I've been doing some research and I've read all about the houses. Gryffindor sounds by far the best. Of course, Ravenclaw would suit me as well."  
  
"I hope I'm in Gryffindor," Ron said nervously. "My whole family's been, and if I wasn't I don't know what would happen..."  
  
"Are Fred and George your brothers then?" Parvati-er, no, Padma-or...was it Parvati? asked.  
  
"Yeah," Ron said. "I take it you've met them?" The girls nodded fervently.  
  
"Quite a pair," Padma (er, Parvati?) said.  
  
"How many brothers have you got?" Hermione asked.  
  
"Five," Ron said dejectedly.  
  
"Five? Goodness! Are you the youngest then?"  
  
Ron shook his head. "I've got a younger sister. She'll be at Hogwarts next year."  
  
"Wow. It must be nice to have a big family. I haven't got any sisters or brothers," Hermione said. Ron shook his head.  
  
"Being the second youngest of a huge family means you get nothing new. All the stuff I've got for Hogwarts are hand-me-downs. I don't know what we're going to next year when Ginny comes. We haven't got..." Ron cut himself off, his ears going rather red.  
  
No one said anything for several moments. "Well, I, personally, would like to be in Gryffindor," Harry announced. "My dad was in Gryffindor, and Sirius was in Gryffindor, and Melody was in Gryffindor, and Lupin was in Gryffindor, and they're just about the coolest adults in the world."  
  
"Who're they?" Padma asked.  
  
"Well, Sirius is my dad's best friend. And Melody is my mom's best friend. And Lupin's another one of my dad's best friends. Well, Melody and Lupin are professors at Hogwarts, and so's my mom. They're riding the train, you girls might have seen them." The girls looked at each other.  
  
"Melody...blond, tall, wicked sense of humor?" Parvati said.  
  
"Your mom...redhead, green eyes, sensible?" Hermione asked.  
  
"Lupin...brown hair, kind of tired-looking?" Padma finished.  
  
"Yep, that's them," Harry confirmed. "Where did you see them?"  
  
"Well, Melody was conspiring with Fred and George on something, and your mother was chewing all three of them out, and Lupin was standing there trying to look serious and responsible, but it wasn't really working," Padma explained. Harry burst out laughing.  
  
"That's them, all right!" he said. "They are the best! My mom's not really as sensible as she seems, though. But she's serious about potions, I'll tell you that."  
  
"So, what are Lupin and Melody teaching?" Padma asked, looking eager to start class with them.  
  
"Well, Lupin teaches Defense Against the Dark Arts," Harry said. "And Melody is in charge of the Dueling Club. But we can't be in it until third year,"  
  
"Rats," Padma said. "She seems like fun."  
  
Harry nodded. "So, what house do you want to be in?" he asked her.  
  
"Ravenclaw," she replied.  
  
"You, too, Parvati?" he asked. Parvati shook her head.  
  
"Definitely Gryffindor." She said.  
  
"So you don't want to be in the same house?" Ron asked, confused. Padma and Parvati looked at each other.  
  
"No," they said at the same time. Then they started laughing.   
  
"Well, we better go before Fred and George find our empty compartment. They might find something evil to do to our trunks." Hermione said, standing up.  
  
"Bye!" Harry said.   
  
"Bye," everyone said to each other, and the girls left.  
  
"Okay, now for the secret," Harry said, picking up the piece of parchment and putting his wand on it again.  
  
Just then their compartment door slid open AGAIN. This time it was Draco Malfoy, and he was flanked by two huge boys Harry had never seen before. Harry was busy staring at them while Draco was busy looking at Neville and Ron. He noticed Harry looking past him.  
  
"Oh, this is Crabbe, this is Goyle," he said, motioning vaguely with his hands. "So, what's your name anyway?" He asked Harry. "We got cut off at Diagon Alley,"  
  
"I'm Harry Potter," Harry said. Draco looked over Neville and Ron once more.  
  
"You're not hanging out with THEM, are you?" He asked with a sneer.  
  
Harry looked at Crabbe and Goyle. "You're not honestly hanging out with THEM, I hope?" he asked.  
  
Draco looked at him coldly. Then he burst out laughing. "Good sense of humor, Potter," he said, holding out a hand for Harry to shake. Harry shook it and smiled.  
  
"What are you doing?" Ron hissed in Harry's ear. "That's a Malfoy!"  
  
"Oh my goodness, you've caught a Weasley," Draco said dryly. "And I'll have you know that I heard that." he directed at Ron. Ron glared at him.   
  
"Well, I can't dawdle," Draco said. "I'll see you at school, Potter." Then, with a cold look at Ron, he left.  
  
"I know he's a Malfoy," Harry shrugged.   
  
"AND!?!? YOU TRUST HIM!?" Ron exploded.   
  
"Of course not," Harry snorted. "I know all about the Malfoys, Ron. But you should give him a chance, shouldn't you?"  
  
"Barking mad," Ron muttered. "Give a Malfoy a chance, sounds like a bad Muggle theme song,"  
  
"What's a theme song?" Neville asked.  
  
"It's a Muggle thing," Harry said.  
  
"How do you two know about Muggle stuff? Don't you both come from wizarding families?"  
  
"My dad loves Muggles. He's fascinated by them."  
  
"My mom was born into a Muggle family. She's been feeding me Muggle stuff secretly my whole life. My dad doesn't want me to know Muggle stuff. But, I figure, Mom teaches me Potions and Muggle stuff, Dad teaches me Charms and Transfiguration spells I'm not s'posed to know, we're even," Harry said. "Shh, don't tell,"  
  
Neville and Ron smiled.  
  
"Anyway, back to this," Harry said, holding up the parchment. He put his wand to it and opened his mouth, when-knock, knock, knock-someone was tapping on the door. The compartment door slid open and a smiling witch popped her head in.   
  
"Food from the cart, dears?" she asked. Ron mumbled about sandwiches, but Neville and Harry went to the cart. Harry bought some of everything except the every flavor beans. He'd had too many bad experiences with Sirius and Every Flavor Beans to trust them again...  
  
"Okay, now, hopefully, we'll be left alone!" Harry said as they sat on the floor to eat. Ron pulled out a sandwich and looked at it, his face falling. "Corned beef," he said, wrinkling his nose. "She always forgets I don't like it,"  
  
"Have some of our stuff," Harry and Neville said, shoving Pumpkin Pasties and Chocolate Frogs into Ron's hands before he could object.  
  
Harry, who had by now figured out Ron's family didn't have much money, told Ron that he'd never really seen a Galleon in his life until he'd gone to Diagon Alley with his parents. He told Neville and Ron all about his life growing up, rarely going out in public because of the fact that they were in hiding, how his parents were still working as Aurors even though the risk was greater than ever.  
  
Ron and Neville were fascinated. Then Neville told a couple stories about his parents and them being Aurors. Ron, in turn, talked about his brothers, and how Bill was a Gringotts curse breaker, and how Charlie worked with dragons. Harry and Neville thought this was much cooler than their parents being Aurors, and Ron just smiled and called them barking mad.   
  
When they were full, they changed into their Hogwarts robes, and Harry suddenly remembered he hadn't shown them the Marauder's Map yet. He took it out again, and placed it on the floor again, and put his wand on it again, and they waited tensely several moments for the stupid door to come sliding open. It didn't. Sighing with relief, Harry opened his mouth. "I solemnly swe-"  
  
The door came sliding open. The three boys groaned and scrambled to hide the map as Lily Potter entered the compartment.  
  
"Oh, hi, Mom," Harry said.  
  
"Hi, Harry. Just coming back to make sure you were behaving yourself." She said. Harry nodded.   
  
"Mom, this is Ron Weasley," Harry introduced. "And you know Neville," he said. Lily nodded and held out a hand to shake Ron's.   
  
"Hello, Ron," she said. "Hi, Neville." Neville waved. "I'm Lily Potter, but you'll all have to call me Professor Potter from now on." They all nodded. "Are you looking forward to getting to Hogwarts?" she asked, sitting down and playing with her 'L' necklace. The boys all nodded.  
  
"You'll love Professor Dumbledore," she said. "He's a wonderful headmaster." The boys all nodded. Sensing she'd interrupted something, she smiled and said: "Well, I'll see you all at the feast!" She got up and walked to the door. "And don't forget to behave yourselves," she said, looking pointedly at Harry, who, looking much like James, averted his gaze. Lily rolled her eyes and left. It was the Marauders, reborn. She could feel it.  
  
Back in the compartment, Harry had the wand and parchment out, ready to go, praying nothing more would interrupt him. But it did. Melody came bounding in.  
  
"Hi, Harry!" she said. She saw them hiding the parchment and recognized it. "Oh, the Marauder's Map!" she squealed. "I haven't seen that thing in years! Did you get it from James?" she asked. Harry nodded, looking slightly put-out that Melody had squeaked what it was.   
  
"Well, go on, say the incantation, don't let me stop you!" Melody said, sitting down and watching the boys with interest. Harry smiled and took out the parchment again. Melody pointed her wand over her shoulder and locked the door.  
  
"I solemnly swear I am up to no good," Harry said, and the Marauder's Map appeared. The boys looked as though their birthdays had come early. Harry got a Marauder-ish grin on his face.   
  
Melody smirked as she watched them all pore over the Marauder's Map. James would have been proud.  
  
And besides, now they could reinstate the Order of Marauder at Hogwarts. Too bad Snape had found that secret room several years back; they no longer had a headquarters. But...hmm...maybe she could fix that...  
  
  
  



	5. Chapter Four: Hogwarts

Chapter Four  
Hogwarts  
  
"Firs' years over here! Right this way! Firs' years!" a giant of a man was calling. "Any more firs' years?" Harry, Neville, and Ron walked over to the group of first years that was rapidly forming in front of the man.   
  
"Who's that?" Ron whispered.  
  
"I think it's Hagrid," Harry said, vaguely remembering his parents talk about him. "He's the gamekeeper."  
  
"Ah," Ron said as they were led down a small path between some bushes and through to the edge of a large lake, where they saw Hogwarts for the first time.  
  
"That's big," Harry said. They reached a little fleet of boats in the lake.  
  
"No more'n four to a boat!" Hagrid called. Harry, Ron, and Neville climbed into a boat and were joined by a sandy-haired boy who introduced himself as Seamus Finnigan.  
  
Once everyone had a boat, they started moving across the lake. Everyone fell into silence as they floated across the water and up to the giant castle that would be their home for the next nine months.   
  
"Heads down!" Hagrid yelled, and everyone ducked as the boats drifted through a stone passageway and docked at a little harbor that seemed to be right under the cliff on which Hogwarts was situated. They all climbed out of the boats, and Hagrid double-checked them all before leading the first years through a passageway and up to the giant front doors.  
  
"Everyone here?" he asked, looking around before lifting his giant fist and knocking three times on the castle door.  
  
It swung open immediately, and there stood a stern-looking, black-haired witch in emerald robes. Professor McGonagall. Harry recognized her immediately.   
  
"The firs' years, Professor," Hagrid said.   
  
"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here." she opened the door widely to let the first years in. Harry barely looked where they were going as he gawked at the monstrosity of the entrance hall and the sheer size of everything he could see. They heard voices coming from a room off their right as the first years passed--that must be where the rest of the school was waiting--but did not enter the room. Instead, they were led to a smaller one, where they all crowded in and listened to Professor McGonagall's rather boring welcome speech. She told them all to smarten themselves up, and then left.   
  
Hermione, Parvati, and Padma, along with another girl Harry didn't recognize, came over to where Harry, Ron, Neville, and Seamus were standing. They introduced the new girl as Lavendar Brown. All of the first years looked rather nervous except for Harry, who of course knew the entire procedure by now.  
  
"I wonder what the Sorting Ceremony is," Ron said nervously, gulping.  
  
"I wonder if we'll have to use any spells..." Hermione said, wondering which of the ones she'd learned she'd need.  
  
"Fred and George were going on about wrestling a mountain troll..." Ron said.  
  
"I do hope I don't do anything stupid..." Lavendar said.  
  
"What if there's a test and someone doesn't pass?" Neville asked, looking rather nervous. Harry looked around at their anxious faces and burst out laughing. Everyone in the room turned to stare at him.  
  
"What's so funny?" Padma demanded.  
  
"Sorry, but there's no reason to be worried!" Harry said, recovering. "All you have to do to be sorted is try on the Sorting Hat!"  
  
"Oh," everybody said collectively, and after that, there was much less tension in the air.  
  
"All right, everybody, form a line, and follow me!" Professor McGonagall said, returning. The first years obeyed and followed her out of the room and into the Great Hall, where they saw the staff table and four other tables filled with students.   
  
As they passed the staff table, Melody waved so hard she fell out of her chair, Lupin smiled, and Lily glared at Melody but winked at Harry. Harry smiled and shook his head.   
  
Professor McGonagall brought out a stool and placed upon it a very tattered, old, dirty hat. Harry glanced at his mom. Lily was twitching as though she would like to jump out of her seat and give the hat a good scrubbing. Harry quickly averted his gaze and tried not to laugh.  
  
The brim of the hat opened wide, and it started in on a song. The school listened respectfully and clapped when it had finished. But all of a sudden, Gryffindor didn't seem quite the house for Harry. He didn't feel very brave at heart or chivalrous or any of that right now. At the moment, no other house seemed quite right for him either...  
  
"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted. Abbot, Hannah!" Professor McGonagall said, beginning the rather long and tedious sorting ceremony. Hannah became the first Hufflepuff, by order of the hat, and she sat down at the table on the right with all the other Hufflepuffs. Harry was suddenly quite glad his last name wasn't at the beginning of the alphabet.   
  
Another Hufflepuff was sorted, and then the first new Ravenclaw. A second Ravenclaw by the name of Mandy Brocklehurst was sorted, and then Lavendar Brown was called.  
  
Stepping out from beside Parvati, and looking rather nervous, Lavendar sat down on the stool and put on the hat. "GRYFFINDOR!" The hat yelled, and the table on the far left exploded with cheers. This was what Harry had been looking forward too; seeing all the Gryffindors. He looked at the table and saw three of Ron's brothers, standing out with their red hair.   
  
"Bulstrode, Millicent" became the first Slytherin, and Harry examined the Slytherins, not surprised to find that they were about as unpleasant and ugly as Sirius and James had described them.  
  
Over at the staff table, Lily was praying and praying that Harry wouldn't be put in Gryffindor. Oh, if he got in with those Weasley twins, they could very well blow up the school. Melody, meanwhile, was thinking the exact opposite, and hoping Harry would be put in Gryffindor, because then not only would he be in the coolest house at Hogwarts, but he would also be in with those wonderful Weasley twins, and then they could reinstate the Order of Marauder, and...  
  
"Finnigan, Seamus!" Professor McGonagall called, and Harry watched him sit on the stool for almost a whole minute before he was declared a Gryffindor.  
  
"Granger, Hermione!" Hermione seemed almost a little too excited for her own good, Harry noted as she jammed the hat on her head. "GRYFFINDOR!" the hat declared. Harry smiled slightly. Good, if he was in Gryffindor, there would at least be two other people he knew. Now Harry was beginning to wish his last name WAS closer to the beginning of the alphabet, because it was getting quite boring, just standing there.  
  
When it came time for Neville, Harry gave him the thumbs up. He sat down on the stool and was almost immediately declared a Gryffindor. Now Harry HAD to be in Gryffindor! It was just Harry, Ron, Padma, and Parvati left now, of the people who had met on the train.  
  
A few more names, and then it was "Malfoy, Draco!" being called, and Harry looked at the staff table to see Melody stiffen and get a hard look on her face. The hat had barely touched his head when Draco was proclaimed a Slytherin.  
  
Now there were only a few people left. Three more, and then it was Padma, who, much to Harry's disappointment, was put in Ravenclaw, and Parvati was put in Gryffindor. Well, Harry didn't suppose that was too bad, if he was put in Gryffindor, but Padma had seemed the nicer of the two. One more girl, and all too soon it was "Potter, Harry!" Harry almost trudged to the stool and placed the hat on his head. It fell over his eyes and he could no longer see the Great Hall.  
  
"Hmm..." a tiny voice whispered in his ear. Harry realized it must be the hat talking. "Let's see...plenty of courage. Sharp wit, too. There's talent, oh my goodness, yes--competitive spirit, I see. I could put you any number of places. Difficult. This is going to be very difficult." Harry thought vaguely Gryffindor might be nice, as most of his friends were already there.   
  
"Gryffindor, eh?" the hat said to him. "Well, that's a nice choice, you'd fit right in. Have fun in GRYFFINDOR!" The hat shouted the last word to the whole school. The Gryffindor table exploded. Melody jumped out of her chair and started screaming as loud as she could, ignoring the disapproving stares she was getting. Lily's head dropped into her hands and she groaned. Lupin smiled. Dumbledore was trying very hard not to laugh.   
  
Harry smiled as he walked over to the Gryffindor table and was greeted by Seamus, Neville, Hermione, Lavendar, Parvati, and Fred and George. He sat down and watched Dean Thomas be sorted into Gryffindor and Lisa Turpin get sorted into Ravenclaw. Then it was Ron's turn. He was looking rather pale as he put on the hat. Harry and the rest of his Gryffindor friends crossed their fingers under the table. A moment later the hat shouted "Gryffindor!" And they stood up cheering, greeting Ron happily. Then one last person was sorted, and the ceremony was over.   
  
As they all settled down, Harry looked down at his empty plate and his stomach growled. He was suddenly quite glad his name was so close to the end of the alphabet; otherwise he'd have been staring at this empty plate for a lot longer.  
  
Albus Dumbledore got to his feet. He was beaming at his students in such a way that Harry just had to smile back, even though he didn't think Dumbledore would see him.  
  
"Welcome!" he said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I have several notes of seriousness that I feel must be addressed before we eat.  
  
"First of all, students are reminded never to go out on the grounds at night without a teacher, and never alone. Second, I am sorry to say that from now on only sixth and seventh year students will be permitted on Hogsmeade trips, as an issue of safety." Loud groans and shocked voices suddenly echoed through the hall. "Please quiet down!" Dumbledore said. "You must understand that in times such as these we have to take extra precautions.   
  
"On a happier note, Professor Kettleburn, our Care of Magical Creatures teacher, informs me that the Clabberts raised by last year's class have reproduced, and anyone willing to help raise the baby Clabberts for extra credit should see Professor Kettleburn after the feast. And now, with that out of the way, enjoy the feast!"  
  
Harry saw the food appear on the table and he helped himself to a bit of everything. It was all delicious. Everyone was pretty much quiet for the beginning of the meal, as they were all starving. Harry finished quickly and leaned back, looking up at the High Table where all the teachers were sitting. Lily and Melody were having a discussion about something. Lily seemed very much exasperated with Melody, who was positively glowing with excitement-about what, Harry wasn't sure.   
  
Next to Melody sat Remus, and then Professor McGonagall. Dumbledore sat in the middle. Harry didn't recognize any teachers on the other side except Hagrid, and he wasn't really even a teacher.  
  
"Who are those other teachers?" Harry wondered.   
  
"Which ones?" Harry looked over to see one of Ron's older brothers looking at him. "Percy Weasley, by the way. I'm Ron's older brother, and a Prefect. I can answer any questions you have about Hogwarts," He held out a hand and Harry shook it.   
  
"I don't know anyone to the left of Professor Dumbledore except Hagrid," Harry said.  
  
"Well, the one right next to him is Professor Flitwick, the Charms teacher; then Professor Sprout-she teaches Herbology-and then you have Professor Kettleburn, Care of Magical Creatures, then Professor Vector, who teaches Arithmancy, and that's about it. Some of the teachers and staff aren't here, though. You'll be seeing them later."  
  
Just then the dinner food disappeared and wonderful desserts came in their place. Harry helped himself to a little of everything. Before he knew it, the feast was over and he was sitting back, quite full, and Dumbledore was standing again.  
  
"Well," he said. "Now that we are all fed and watered, I have several announcements to make. I would like to remind the Quidditch teams that a teacher must be present during all practices.   
  
"Also, any third years interested in being a member of the dueling club should see Professor Cauldwell in the Great Hall tomorrow morning at breakfast. Professor Potter asks me to remind all of you that anyone going near her private potions stores or her lab will receive cruel and unusual punishment.  
  
"And, as always, students are reminded never to go into the Forbidden Forest. And now, with that done, let us sing the school song. Pick a tune, and away we go!" He flicked his wand, and out poured little streams of music, and the school broke out into song. Among the last to finish were the Weasley twins, singing along to a very slow funeral march. Even after they finished, Melody was still going, to some sort of gospel tune, which involved a lot of repetition and running of the notes on Melody's part.   
  
She had picked up a fork and was now using it as a microphone. "We're gonna learn, gonna lee---a---rr-n till our brains, oo-oh-oh-ohwho-aoh, all ro-o-o-o-o-o-o-ot!!!" she finished dramatically, and the whole school burst out into applause. Melody bowed, and then took a seat.  
  
"Ah, thank you, Professor." Dumbledore said, and Melody nodded, as if to say 'no problem.' "What would the school song be without you?" Harry saw his mother mouth, 'how about sane?' and tried not to laugh. "Music!" Dumbledore cried. "A magic far greater than any we teach here! Now, off to bed! Good night!"  
  
With that, the whole school stood, and every house followed their respective Prefects to their common rooms. Harry was so tired and stuffed; he barely paid attention to where they were going.  
  
Up staircases, behind hidden panels and tapestries, more stairs, more stairs...was there even an end to the stairs? Harry was beginning to wonder if they'd ever get where they were going at all when they suddenly came to a dead halt.  
  
Harry looked up to see a bundle of walking sticks floating in midair. "It's Peeves," Percy whispered to the first years. "A poltergeist." Percy walked forward, and the walking sticks started throwing themselves at him. "Peeves, show yourself!" Percy demanded. Peeves answered by throwing all the walking sticks at him. Percy backed up a little. "No one can control him except the Bloody Baron," Percy whispered exasperatedly. "He won't even listen to us prefects!"  
  
"Oh, nonsense!" Came a voice from behind them. All the Gryffindors whirled around to see Melody making her way up the stairwell. "Peeves'll listen to anyone! You just have to know what to say!" She pushed her way through the crowd and up next to Percy. "Hey, Peeves!" She directed at the walking sticks. "Have I gone blind, or is there just something hovering there that needs blue paint on it?" With a pop, a poltergeist immediately appeared, holding the walking sticks and smiling devilishly.  
  
"Haven't gone blind, ma'am," Peeves said.   
  
"Good!" Melody replied. "Now, last time I checked, Filch was almost done cleaning up that mess you made of the trophy room. If you go there, I think you'll find something of interest in the biggest trophy." Melody winked and Peeves zoomed off. "Now who says that's not handling him?"  
  
Percy had quite a sour look on his face, but he didn't say anything to Melody. (She was, after all, a Professor.) "Run along, now, get to bed! I know you must all be tired!" Melody said, motioning them up the stairs. The students started moving again, but as Harry passed by Melody, she grabbed his arm.   
  
"Harry! There you are! I need to talk to you," she said, and she yanked him the opposite direction of the way everyone else was going. They reached a suit of armor. Melody tapped it with her wand and muttered something. It slid aside and the wall opened to reveal a small room.   
  
"What's this?" Harry asked. Melody shrugged. "Just some room nobody uses. Nothing important."  
  
"So, why did you need to talk to me?" Harry asked.  
  
"Well, the Gryffindor Quidditch team is in desperate need of a Seeker, and I know you're the best they can get."  
  
"And?" Harry said. "First years aren't allowed on Quidditch teams!"  
  
"I know," Melody said. "But I have an idea to get you on it."  
  
"What?" Harry asked, both excited and scared. Melody's ideas were usually the same as Sirius's: fun, exciting, but dangerous.  
  
"Okay, this is how it's going to work: Your first Flying Class, the Quidditch equipment is going to 'mysteriously' escape from its box and end up near all of you. That means two bludgers and the Snitch are going to be flying around. Your job will be to find the Snitch as fast as you possibly can--hopefully you'll be able to throw in a magnificent dive--and dodge the bludgers, all before the teacher can make you come down off your broom. They'll most likely call out the Weasley twins and Oliver Wood-they're all Gryffindor--and probably Cho Chang-she's a superb Seeker, and from Ravenclaw-and you'll have to get to the Snitch before she does. Got it?"  
  
Harry took a moment to let his brain register. "So...you'll let out the Bludgers and Snitch, I'll go up high in the air, capture the Snitch while everyone's looking but before I've stayed up too long and before Cho Chang comes out?"  
  
"Yes." Melody nodded. "You got it. And if the plan works, you're on your way to being the youngest Quidditch player at Hogwarts in a hundred years. Good luck!" Melody said, and she led the way out of the small room and the rest of the way to Gryffindor tower. They reached a portrait of a fat lady in a pink silk dress and stopped. "Password?" she asked.  
  
"Caput Draconis," Melody replied. The portrait swung forward to reveal a round hole in the wall. "Right through there, up the middle stairway. See you at breakfast!" Melody said. Harry nodded, his eyes drooping as he followed her instruction. He trudged up the staircase and into a dormitory. He found his bed and fell into it, not even bothering to take off his glasses.  
  
***  
  
The next morning, Harry, Ron, Neville, Seamus, Hermione, Parvati,, and Lavendar congregated in the middle of the Gryffindor common room to study the Marauder's Map on how to get down to breakfast. They hadn't really paid attention on how they had gotten up here from the Great Hall last night, and didn't want to get horribly lost looking for it.  
  
Harry had decided to trust all of them with the secret of the Marauder's Map-why, he wasn't sure, but something in his gut told him all of his new friends could be trusted.   
  
Hermione, who had a very good memory, only needed to look at the map for a minute before she knew how to get there. She led them all down to breakfast quite successfully, except for one moment when half of them got their feet sunken into a vanishing step and had to be helped out of it.  
  
When they reached the Great Hall, they noticed a long line of third years stretching from outside the door to inside, up by the High Table. Melody was at the head of the line, taking names and talking. That must be the Dueling Club sign-ups.  
  
They sat down and helped themselves to some cereal and toast. Suddenly, about a hundred owls streamed into the Great Hall. Hermione, who had been holding a piece of toast, jumped, and the toast dropped into her bowl of corn flakes. All the first years looked up with surprise as the owls began circling the tables, looking for their owners. Aphrodite swooped down over Harry and dropped a letter at his place.   
  
Harry picked it up and opened it.   
  
Hey Harry!  
  
So you're at Hogwarts now, huh? What house did you get in? Have you made any new friends yet? If so, send us back their birth dates; we're going shopping tomorrow.   
  
And remember: don't do anything we wouldn't do!  
  
~Sirius, Melody, and Alex~  
  
"Birth dates?" Harry muttered.  
  
"Who was that from, Harry?" Neville asked.  
  
"It's from my sister and my godfather and one of my friends," Harry said. "They want all your guys's birth dates."  
  
Parvati, Lavendar, Neville, Hermione, Seamus, and Ron all exchanged looks. "Why?" Hermione asked. Harry shrugged. "I dunno. It doesn't say. It says they're going shopping tomorrow; maybe they want to buy you all something." They all shrugged and gave Harry their birthdays, which Harry scribbled down in a note back to Sirius, Melody, and Alex. He also included that he was in Gryffindor. He signed it, then gave it to Aphrodite. She took off again.  
  
"Why in the world would they want our birthdays?" Hermione wondered, fishing her now-soggy toast out of her corn flakes.  
  
"It did sound like they were going to get us something, but...why?" Ron asked. They all looked at Harry. "Don't ask me about the way Sirius's mind works!" he said. "But he'll probably send you some joke products or something."  
  
Then they got their schedules and didn't have much time to worry about why Sirius, Melody, and Alex wanted all their birthdays.  
  
It turned out the Marauder's Map wasn't going to be much help in finding all their classes; they couldn't have it out in public, otherwise people would get suspicious, and it wasn't as if everything were perfectly labeled on it, either. They'd just have to learn things the hard way.  
  
The difficulty wasn't just getting to the classes, however. The classes themselves were fairly challenging as well. They had to study the night skies every Wednesday at midnight and learn the names of different constellations and movements of the planets. They went out to the greenhouses three times a week to study Herbology with Professor Sprout. They sat in a stupor during History of Magic, easily the most boring class, and the only one taught by a ghost.  
  
Charms, which was taught by tiny little Professor Flitwick, and Transfiguration, which was taught by Professor McGonagall, were the classes in which they got to do the most actual magic. They had to start slowly, which was rather boring for Harry, but at least he got to use his wand. He hadn't realized learning magic would require quite so many notes.   
  
But even in Transfiguration and Charms, however, there were a lot of notes involved. Their first Transfiguration class, Professor McGonagall had given them a strict talking-to, and then proceeded to change her desk to a pig and back again. After a series of very complicated notes, they were given a match and told to try turning it into a needle.  
  
James, who was very fond of Transfiguration, had taught Harry this a long time ago, so he finished first. By the end of the class, the only other person to make any difference to their needle was Hermione. Professor McGonagall gave both students a rare smile and rewarded them a point each for Gryffindor.   
  
The class everyone had really been looking forward to was Defense Against the Dark Arts, and it was no disappointment. Professor Lupin had started their first class by going over a schedule of what they were going to learn this year. For the first half of the year, they would study dangerous Dark creatures and Dark objects (i.e.: household objects cursed with Dark magic). For the second half, they would study Dark magic; what type of curses to look out for, and, later, how to block them and what the counter curses were, etc.  
  
Friday was their first Potions lesson. As Harry and Ron looked over the schedule, they realized they would be taking Potions with the Slytherins.   
  
"Oh no!" Ron said. "Not the Slytherins!"  
  
"Well, it could be worse," Percy Weasley said, overhearing him. "You could have had Professor Snape, you know. He always favored the Slytherins. Professor--or your mother, rather, Harry--is a much better teacher than Snape ever was. Not to speak ill of the dead--" Percy finished with a whisper. Harry and his friends exchanged looks. Just then the bell rang and they all got up for Potions.  
  
They made their way down to the Potions dungeon, and Parvati, who was the only one to have checked the map this morning for directions to class, got confused and turned right instead of left. Consequently, they were lost and had to ask directions from a ghost wandering around down there, which helped but still made them five minutes late for class. When the whole group of them burst in late, the entire class turned to look at them.  
  
"Well isn't this interesting," Lily Potter said, raising an eyebrow. "I just finished telling the class how important it is that everybody be prompt. However, it is our first class and since you wouldn't have known where exactly to go, although you could have asked, there will no penalty--this time. Please take your seats." She watched all of them pointedly as they took their seats.  
  
"Now," she said sternly, calling the class's attention back to her. "Back to rules. Like I said, be prompt and prepared. Secondly, there will be absolutely no goofing off in this class. There are no second chances, either. If I catch you, any of you, goofing off in my class, you are out. Permanently. Is that unclear to anyone?" No one responded. "Good. Next rule.   
  
"You will not bring any sort of food, toy, game, joke product, et cetera, into my classroom. If I see anything of the sort, it will be confiscated and given to Mr. Filch, and good luck trying to get it back from him." She shot Harry a stern look, and he got the impression that she was telling him not to bring the Marauder's Map to class, or else.  
  
"You will not talk when I am talking. You will pay attention and take notes. If you miss something, do not bother to ask me, because I say each instruction only once. This is why it is important that you write things down. Do not ask me questions unless I ask for questions. If you've missed something, wait until I am done talking, and ask somebody else.   
  
"And lastly, you will all be respectful to each other in this class. I don't care if you hate each other's guts, you will not do anything to anyone else that is harmful or disrespectful in any way while I am watching you." With those words and an icy cold stare around the room at the wide-eyed students, Lily Potter broke into a smile. "Now, if you follow the rules and do what you are expected to, we can actually have fun in here. If you're a good class, on the days before holiday, I will let you socialize, play games, brew a potion or try some spells for fun, and probably pass around treats. However, you must be well behaved and any potions or spells must be approved and supervised by me. Are you ready to start? Good.  
  
"Now, before we get too far into class, does anyone have any questions about curriculum?" Lily asked, sitting on her desk, legs dangling above the floor. Several hands raised. "Yes, miss...Granger, is it?" she said, pointing at Hermione and looking down at her class roster. Hermione nodded and lowered her hand.  
  
"What kind of potions will we be brewing?" she asked.  
  
"Oh, all kinds," Lily said. "It really depends on the class. If you are a good class and perform well, by the end of the year you may very well be trying some basic second year potions. I do plan, however, to teach you all the sleeping potion, the forgetfulness potion, and the shrinking potion, just as a few examples. Does that answer your question?" Hermione nodded. "Okay. You...Miss...Parkinson?" Lily asked. The Slytherin girl she had pointed to nodded.   
  
"What kinds of exams will we be doing in here?"   
  
"Well, some exams are written. Those are usually fill-in-the-blanks. Some involve potion brewing without notes. Others may be oral." The Slytherin girl nodded. "Any more questions?" Lily asked. No one raised their hand. "No?" She waited several seconds. "Okay. Now I'm going to pass around a short quiz, just as an assessment of what you know, which may not be much, but that's okay; just do your best. Then we'll go over the quiz, take some notes, do a little reading, and try a simple little potion." Lily passed out the quiz and gave them ten minutes to take it.   
  
After they went over it, took notes, and read a little from their books, she told them to put all their books on the floor and set up their cauldrons.   
  
"This is one of the quickest, simplest potions you can make," she said. "It takes about twenty minutes to make, and will cure hiccups, coughs, and most allergies." She wrote the ingredients and procedure on the board and told them all to get to work. She went around, making comments and supervising.   
  
"Good job...you need your fire a little hotter...hurry it up, girls, the slices don't need to be perfect for this...looking good, Mr. Potter...ah, not quite that many roots, boys...fire's a little too hot, there...wait, let it simmer five minutes before adding those...nice...don't worry if it smells!...that's good!" Lily finished circling the class. "All right, everyone, we have fifteen minutes of class left. Finish up your potions and pack up when you're done. Don't forget to show me when you're finished, though! We'll test the potion, and the good ones you can keep. They come in handy when you've got an annoying case of the hiccups or if you're allergic to cats. If you don't want yours, we can send all good leftovers to Madam Pomfrey."  
  
Fifteen minutes later, Harry walked out of class holding a potion in his hand, impressed with his mom's class. "That was...cool," he said, surprised.   
  
"Wow...I didn't think I'd like Potions too much, but that class was actually kind of fun!" Ron said. "Don't know why; we didn't do anything real interesting. I guess your mom's just a good teacher, Harry!"  
  
"Oh, I can't wait until our next Potions class!" Hermione said. Harry, much to his surprise, found that he was actually looking forward to it too.  
  
  
  
A/N: Okay, peeps, sorry it took me so long to get this up! Hope you liked this chapter; I really enjoyed writing it! Please leave me a review; feedback is always appreciated! Well I have to now but a little preview of the next chapter: It is going to be titled "Chapter Five-Sirius Cooks Something." That will be...*ahem*...interesting...  
  
LOL well luv ya, bye!  
  
~*Sierra Charm*~  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	6. Chapter Five: Sirius...Cooks...Something

  
Chapter Five  
Sirius...Cooks...Something  
  
"Okay, I think that's everything," Sirius said, looking around the kitchen.  
  
"I hope so!" Melody said, looking around. The kitchen was full of bags. There were bags on the chairs, the table, the island, and bags covering every inch of counter space available. "Were we really supposed to buy THAT much?" she asked.  
  
"Who knows?" Sirius shrugged. Melody laughed.  
  
"Where the hell does all of this go?" Alex asked.  
  
"Alex! I don't want to hear you use that kind of language again!" Sirius snapped. Alex looked at him, his eyes widened in surprise.  
  
"Sorry!" he said.  
  
"If you're going to cuss, you should at least do it properly!" Sirius said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "You shouldn't say: Where the hell does all of this go? You should say: Where in the hell does all of this bloody shit go?"  
  
"Sirius!" Melody exclaimed as Alex burst out into laughter. "That is not funny!" Sirius just shrugged. He scratched his head and looked around at all of the bags.   
  
"Melody...you wouldn't happen to have any idea of where to put any of this stuff, would you?"  
  
"Well...yeah, I guess. I mean, I know where Mom usually puts everything."  
  
"Wonderful! Well, have fun!" Sirius said, and he waved and left the kitchen.   
  
"Sirius!" Melody screeched. She turned to Alex with her mouth wide open. "Can you believe him?" she asked.   
  
"Uh...have fun?" Alex said, and he ducked out of the kitchen before Melody could do anything.   
  
"Alex! Get your rude butt back here!" Melody yelled, sounding very much like Lily as she chased him out of the kitchen.  
  
  
Two hours later, they had all the groceries put away, and Sirius had some things cooking. He had something in the oven and several pots on the stove.  
  
Melody, Sirius, and Alex were all playing a game of Exploding Snap in the family room. Melody's stomach was grumbling.  
  
"Sirius, I'm starving. When's dinner going to be ready?" she asked. Sirius froze.  
  
"Uh...ready?" he asked. Melody shot him a Look.  
  
"Yeah. Ready." She said.   
  
"How am I supposed to know?" Sirius asked, taking his turn.  
  
"Well, you're the one cooking it!" Melody said, slightly alarmed. "I mean, you did set the timers, didn't you?"  
  
"Timers? What timers?" Sirius asked confused.  
  
"You didn't set the timers?!" Melody shrieked.  
  
"Relax! I have it all under control!" Sirius lied.  
  
"Did you even read the directions?" Melody asked.  
  
"Directions? There were directions?"  
  
"Sirius! What exactly are you cooking?"  
  
"Some meat stuff and some frozen vegetables and some macaroni and cheese. I think." Sirius said.  
  
"Are you sure about that?" Melody asked.  
  
Alex got a funny look on his face. "Do either of you...smell that?" he asked.  
  
"Yeah..." Sirius said. "Smells like burning plastic. Funny. Wonder where that's coming from?"  
  
"Dunno..." Alex said, looking around, confused. Melody gave them both Looks.  
  
"You two have GOT to be kidding me," she said. "It's coming from the kitchen!" she yelled. "THE FOOD'S BURNING!" Melody yelled, standing up, her face getting red.  
  
"The food's burning?!" Sirius and Alex exclaimed. All three of them ran into the kitchen. They coughed at the smoke coming off the stove.  
  
Melody grabbed an oven mitt and opened the oven door. Smoke came billowing out. She grabbed another mitt and cautiously reached in, pulling out the contents and dropping them on the top of the stove. She turned off the burners and the oven, then closed the door.   
  
"Sirius," she said, coughing. "D'you think you could clear this smoke away? I can barely see!"  
  
She heard Sirius's voice, and suddenly the smoke cleared. They all coughed several more times, then looked at the mess on the stove.  
  
"Nice going," Melody said, looking at the mess that had been in the oven. It was steaks. Or at least, they had all been steaks at one point in time. Now Melody wasn't sure what to call them.  
  
"What, they're not supposed to look like that?" Sirius asked. Melody glared at him.  
  
"Sirius, you melted the styrofoam and the plastic right into the steaks. They're not edible."  
  
"Bummer," Sirius said. Melody rolled her eyes.  
  
"Let's see what you've done with the side dishes," she said, taking the lids off of the two pots on the stove. Steam escaped, and when it cleared, Melody could see a bag of frozen vegetables and a box of macaroni and cheese crammed into two pots, wet with once-boiling water.   
  
"Well, how was I supposed to know how to cook Muggle food?" Sirius asked.  
  
"Okay, the steaks, I can kind of understand." Melody said. "But Sirius, the directions for the macaroni and cheese are right on the box." she yanked the mutilated macaroni and cheese box out of the pot. "Look! Right there!" she said, pointing at the directions on the back, printed in big, bold letters. "Note the helpful illustrations!" she said. "It's not that hard to figure out!"  
  
"Okay, Lily, calm down!" Sirius said. Melody just glared at him and threw away their ruined...dinner.   
  
"Calm down? Calm down? I've been hungry for two hours, and I want some food!" she yelled. "And don't call me Lily."  
  
"Whatever," Alex said, sitting on the counter. "Let's just get something to eat. I'm hungry!"  
  
"Yeah. Let's just go out to eat," Melody agreed.  
  
"A great idea, but...I think we spent all the money James and Lily left us," Sirius said.   
  
"Already?!" Melody said. "Sirius! That money was supposed to last us all year! I cannot believe we spent all that money on useless junk!"  
  
"It wasn't useless junk!" Sirius said, defending his shopping. Melody gave him a very pointed Look. "Okay, so maybe the twelve bags of Dungbombs were a bit much. But still! We have enough stuff here to last us! We just have to figure out what to do with it!"   
  
Alex and Sirius both looked at Melody, as if they expected her to start cooking something.  
  
"Oh no," she said, catching their looks. "No way are you getting ME to cook!" They kept looking at her. She sighed. "Fine, I'll make us sandwiches or something, you guys get out of my way."  
  
***  
  
Harry nervously walked out to his first flying class with the rest of his Gryffindor friends. He wasn't nervous that he wouldn't fly well--he knew he could--but--what if he messed up horribly when Melody released the Quidditch balls? He wanted to make the team, he was desperate to--but what if someone found out what Melody was doing? That wouldn't be good.  
  
And on top of that, the Gryffindors just had to be stuck flying with the Slytherins. They were pretty tame in Potions, but in the halls and during lunch they were really annoying. And Malfoy loved to pick on Ron, which Harry didn't appreciate much at all. He didn't really seem to like any of the Gryffindors, as a matter of fact. The only person he didn't bug too much was Harry, which Harry found odd, because Alex, Melody, and all the Weasleys were Harry's best friends and the Malfoys' worst enemies-and Draco knew it.  
  
"Harry? Are you okay?" Hermione asked, noticing the tension in his face.  
  
"What?" Harry asked, jerking his head over in Hermione's direction. "Oh, yeah, I'm fine."  
  
"Don't be nervous; I'm sure flying won't be TOO hard. Do you want some flying tips?"  
  
"No, it's not the flying, I...I'm just thinking about that essay we had to write for History of Magic." Harry lied. "I don't know if I have enough notes for it."  
  
"Oh! Well, I took good notes. We can go over mine!" Hermione said. She always loved talking about schoolwork. Harry just rolled his eyes.  
  
"Hermione, can I see your essay? I know you're done already, and I need, like, five more inches." Ron said from Hermione's other side.  
  
"No!" Hermione exclaimed. "You're just going to copy. How will you ever learn anything if you keep copying off of people?"  
  
"Come on, Hermione, Harry's just going to copy all your notes!"  
  
"He will not!" Hermione said indignantly as they reached the field where they were going to be given their flying lessons. "I said we'd go OVER my notes. I never said he could HAVE my notes!"  
  
"Oh, come on, Hermione, it's just five inches!"  
  
"Just five inches! Ron, do you know how much work it takes me to write five inches? If you'd spend half as much time on your essays as I do mine, you'd have nothing to complain about!"  
  
"Oh, come off it, Hermione, your essays are always at least one roll of parchment more than was asked for! Just let me look at it!"  
  
"Absolutely not, Ron, that's cheating!"  
  
"But Hermione--" Ron began, protesting again, but Madam Hooch cut him off as she began their flying lesson.   
  
"All right, everyone, stand by a broom!" she barked. "Come on! Hurry up, what are you waiting for?" Everyone quickly took their place behind one of the twenty brooms lined up on the ground.  
  
Harry looked down at his broom. It was slightly bent and some of the twigs were sticking out at weird angles. What he wouldn't give for his Nimbus right now! Even his old broom would be better than this! He'd heard the Weasley twins complaining about school brooms--how some of them started to vibrate if you flew to high, or always flew slightly to the left. Great, just great...that was all Harry needed; for him to be diving for the Snitch and have his broom veer off to the left, making him miss completely. His stomach started twisting itself into knots.  
  
Madam Hooch told them all how to get their brooms off the ground, sit on them, and grip them. Harry did all of this mindlessly, nervously wondering when Melody was going to let the Quidditch balls go. He was so distracted by his thoughts that he didn't even notice when the rest of the class had lifted up into the air.  
  
"Potter!" Madam Hooch barked. "What's the matter, are you scared of flying? Kick off!" Harry snapped back to attention and kicked off, his cheeks slightly pink.  
  
"All right! Tilt forward on your brooms slightly and you'll come back down." Madam Hooch instructed.  
  
Several minutes later, after a set of strict rules had been laid out for them, the students were allowed a small bit of free flying. Harry lifted himself above the rest of the class and zoomed around aimlessly. Flying always helped him to relax. But he didn't get much time.   
  
"Harry!" came an annoyed voice. Harry looked down to see his friends looking up at him. "Come back down here!" said Hermione, who looked quite uncomfortable on her broom. Harry sighed and reluctantly joined his friends.  
  
"You never told me you knew how to fly!" Hermione accused. Harry shrugged.  
  
"You never asked."  
  
" I feel like an idiot! There I was, trying to give you tips, and you can fly better than the rest of this class put together!" she said, shaking her head.  
  
"Oh, I wouldn't say that, Hermione," Seamus said, turning upside-down on his broom and flying around her in circles.  
  
"Finnigan! Right side up!" Madam Hooch yelled. Seamus flipped back over.   
  
"I don't see why I'm having so much trouble with this!" Hermione said, urging her broom slowly forward, but it was very wobbly.  
  
"You're thinking too much, Hermione!" Harry said, zigzagging through the air in all directions. "Just be loose and let the broom take you where you want to go! Don't try so hard."   
  
Hermione sighed and took a wide turn, nearly running into Draco, who was going in the opposite direction. She jerked her broom off to the right just in time, and glared at Draco as he yelled, "Watch where you're going, Granger!"  
  
Parvati wasn't having a much better time of it. She was flying low, in circles, near the ground, with Lavendar hovering off to the side, giving her a few tips.  
  
Harry and Neville got bored and started playing Chicken, zooming at each other across the sky and turning at the last possible second.  
  
"No goofing off!" Madam Hooch yelled, blowing her whistle. Neville and Harry rolled their eyes, and went back to helping Hermione, who was now with Lavendar and Parvati.   
  
Just as Hermione and Parvati were starting to get it, a black ball came flying out of nowhere and knocked Parvati off her broom. She screamed as she fell five feet to the ground, clutching her arm. The black ball flew off and tried to attack Pansy Parkinson, who dodged. Melody had let the Bludgers out.  
  
"Land!" Madam Hooch yelled furiously, motioning at the first years. "All of you, land right now!" Some of the Slytherins were having fun dodging the bludgers, and Madam Hooch was yelling her head off at them.   
  
"GET DOWN HERE RIGHT NOW! I HAVE TO TAKE THIS GIRL TO THE HOSPITAL WING! YOU'LL ALL GET DETENTION! COME HERE AND LAND!"  
  
Everyone reluctantly landed. "Weasley!" she yelled. "Get your brothers! They're in Herbology! Granger! Come with me! The rest of you, STAY HERE!" Madam Hooch took Parvati into the castle, Hermione trailing behind, and Ron ran off to the greenhouses.   
  
"Who would let the Bludgers out to terrorize the first year Flying Class?" Lavendar asked. "Fred and George love jokes, but they wouldn't do this, would they?" Seamus, Neville, and Harry shrugged.   
  
"I SAW THE SNITCH!" screamed a Slytherin. Everyone jerked their heads over and looked into the sky.   
  
"This is rubbish, standing around here!" Draco said. "I'm going to find the Snitch!" he mounted his broom and soared up into the sky, looking around. Harry's cheeks flushed. He wasn't going to let Draco take this away from him!  
  
"Draco, come off it!" Harry yelled. "You're just going to get in trouble!" Draco looked down at Harry.   
  
"Come up here and make me, Potter!" Draco yelled back, and Harry gladly accepted the challenge. He mounted his broom and pushed off, but he didn't go after Draco. Instead, he started looking for the Snitch.  
  
After a couple of seconds, Fred and George Weasley came zooming out of the equipment shed with brooms and their Beater equipment.  
  
"Oi! You two!" Fred yelled, seeing Harry and Draco in the sky, dodging Bludgers and looking for the Snitch. "Get out of the sky! We'll handle this."  
  
Harry and Draco ignored him. Harry just circled higher and looked for a glint of gold.   
  
George flew just below Harry and knocked a Bludger over to Fred, who caught it and landed, wrestling it back into the equipment box.   
  
"Harry, what are you doing?" George asked.  
  
"Looking for the Snitch!" Harry replied.   
  
"The Snitch is out too?" George asked, whacking the other Bludger over to Fred.  
  
"Yeah!" Harry said.   
  
Just then, two things happened at the same time.   
  
First, Hermione, Madam Hooch, and Professor McGonagall (whom Harry didn't see) came out of the castle, Madam Hooch yelling furiously about something. Second, Harry spotted the Snitch, hovering by Lavendar's knee.   
  
"Lavendar! Move!" Harry yelled, and he rocketed into a spectacular dive. Lavendar looked up, saw Harry coming for her, shrieked, and ran. Harry scooped up the Snitch, grazed the grass with his feet, and flew back up to come in for a better landing.   
  
He got off his broom, holding the Snitch triumphantly in his hand. His classmates cheered (all except for Draco and his friends) and Fred and George landed, congratulating Harry and putting the Snitch back in the equipment box. But Harry didn't have much time to be happy, because next thing he knew, Professor McGonagall's shrill voice was echoing over the lawn.  
  
"HARRY POTTER! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?"  
  
***  
  
A rat scurried through a dark forest, carrying a small slip of paper in its mouth. It came to the end of the forest and into a small, quiet, slightly dirty town.  
  
The rat crawled down into a sewer and ran along the edge. It crawled up out of another drain and ran out of the town. It kept running, running, running across the countryside.  
  
After about an hour, the rat's destination came into view. At first it was just a speck in the distance, but as the rat got closer, he could clearly see a fortress coming into focus.  
  
Most people didn't even know the fortress existed. It was Unplottable, of course, and on top of that, it was someplace you couldn't get to unless you knew exactly where it was and that it was there.  
  
The rat reached the entrance to the Fortress and turned into a human as it reached the gate, taking the piece of paper out of its mouth. He showed the guard the Dark Mark on his arm and the gates opened for him.   
  
Voldemort's fortress was crawling with Death Eaters. They had all segregated themselves from society, and nobody in the wizarding community knew where all of Voldemort's followers had disappeared to. Only one thing was certain: everybody now knew who was a follower of the Dark Lord, with very few exceptions.  
  
The Malfoys, for instance. Lucius was and always would be a faithful Death Eater, but he had so much power in the magical community that Voldemort wanted him to stay there rather than at the Fortress, so that he could get news from inside the Ministry. Lucifer Malfoy, of course, was Voldemort's right hand man, and he was long-gone from society, which was just as well, because very few people knew Lucifer Malfoy even existed, let alone that he was Voldemort's brother--half-brother, really.  
  
But that wasn't important. What was important was that Peter gave this message to the Dark Lord before he became obsolete.   
  
Voldemort wasn't really too impressed with Peter these days. Several years ago, Voldemort had actually counted him as someone important, someone he needed. Now Peter was just the messenger boy.   
  
Ever since James and Lily had chosen Sirius as their Secret-Keeper and figured out Peter wasn't really trustworthy (they didn't know Peter was working Voldemort-all they had were their suspicions), Voldemort had been rather sour with him. But he figured being messenger boy was better than being dead.  
  
Peter entered the fortress and made his way to what he jokingly called Voldemort's DPR (Diabolical Planning Room). (Needless to say, Voldemort didn't appreciate the nickname.) He burst in right in the middle of a meeting. Voldemort was less than pleased, but let Wormtail go without a word, taking the message.  
  
As he read it, a vicious smile spread over his face.  
  
"What is it?" Lucifer asked.   
  
"It's Mr. James Potter, my dear brother. It seems we've intercepted an owl from the Ministry to him. They're trying to tell him to leave Transylvania." Voldemort's eyes turned a more malicious shade of red than they usually were. He burned the parchment, laughing. "I guess we're going to Transylvania, Lucifer."  
  
***  
  
Melody Potter woke up in the middle of the night with a horrible knot in her stomach. Her heart was beating ten times faster than normal, she was breathing hard, and her hands were clammy. She put a hand up to her forehead and closed her eyes, thinking...trying to remember.  
  
She slid out of bed and walked over to the window, opening the blinds. She looked at the half-full moon up in the sky. She gasped, and the knot in her stomach got tighter. There was blood on the moon, and a ring around it.   
  
Melody rushed downstairs. "Sirius!" she yelled. "Sirius!" she rushed into the family room and found Sirius snoring on the couch.   
  
Lily and James always gave Sirius the master bedroom when he stayed, but he rarely slept in there. Most of the time he ended up falling asleep on the couch, listening to the radio.   
  
Melody switched off the radio and shook Sirius awake. "No, James, don't get me up. I don't care if we have a Quidditch match today..." he mumbled.  
  
"Sirius!" Melody yelled. He sat up so fast she fell backwards over the coffee table. "Ow," she said rubbing her back and standing up again.   
  
"Sorry. What is it?" he asked, rubbing his eyes.   
  
"Dad's in trouble!" Melody said.   
  
"James? What do you mean?" Sirius sat up straighter and suddenly got more alert. "Did we get an owl? What's going on?"  
  
"I don't know...I...we didn't get an owl, but I just woke up from a dream. I can't remember what happened, but...Sirius, there's a ring around the moon! And there's blood on it!" Melody exclaimed, her voice breaking.  
  
"That's just superstition," Sirius said, rolling his eyes. "Blood on the moon, yada yada-it doesn't mean anything!"  
  
"But Sirius, I just-I have this horrible feeling something's wrong!" Melody insisted, desperate for him to believe her.  
  
"Calm down, Melody. It was just a dream."  
  
"But what if it's not just a dream?!" Melody cried. Sirius sighed. As much as he was sure this was just some sort of nightmare thing, you never knew with witches.   
  
"Fine, you win, we'll bug Lily." Sirius said. "Are you happy now?"  
  
"Yes," Melody said.   
  
Sirius yawned, stretched, and got up. He walked over to the fireplace, lit a fire, and threw in some Floo Powder. "Potions dungeon at Hogwarts!" Sirius yelled, stepping into the flames.   
  
***  
  
Lily Potter carefully measured out 4 cm of dragon blood in a little test tube. Dragon's blood was an important ingredient in Will-Strengthening potions. Maybe if she added some of this, it would help Aurors fight some of the Unforgivable Curses...   
  
One more drop, and then it would be 4 cm exactly.   
  
"Aah!" Lily screamed, jumped, and dropped the test tube on the floor as Sirius Black fell out of her fireplace. It shattered, and dragon's blood flew everywhere. Lily glared at Sirius as she took out her wand and repaired the shattered tube, setting it on the table.  
  
"What have I told you before about just popping into my potions dungeon through the fireplace?" she asked, pointing her wand accusingly at Sirius and walking toward him menacingly.   
  
"Lily, this isn't anything to get so upset about...is it?" Sirius asked, faltering slightly.  
  
"You're not going to kill him, are you, Mom?" Melody asked, coming through the fireplace.  
  
"Melody!" Lily said, jumping. "What are you doing here?"  
  
"I-" but she didn't get a chance to finish. Lily cut her off.  
  
"Oh no, it's the house, isn't it? The house burned down! Where's Alex? Oh God, Alex is dead, isn't he?" Lily said.  
  
"LILY! You're rambling! Stop!" Sirius yelled. Lily stopped talking.  
  
"Please tell me it's not any of those things," she said, crouching down to be eye level with Melody.   
  
"No," Melody said, shaking her head.   
  
"Oh, thank God," Lily said, plopping to the floor, hand over her heart. Then her eyes flew open. "It's James, isn't it?" she said. Melody nodded.   
  
"What happened?" Lily whispered, panic in her eyes. She fingered the pendant on her necklace.  
  
James had given her the necklace when they were both in sixth year. She hadn't taken it off since. Any time she felt afraid, she touched her necklace and felt better.   
  
Now, though, it wasn't helping much. She had a horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach, like something awful was about to happen.   
  
"I'm not sure, Mom, but I had a horrible dream. I...I can't remember much about it...except that it was horrible, and it had something to do with Dad." Melody said. Her lower lip was trembling. "Have you looked outside?" she whispered.  
  
"No. Why?" Lily asked, scrunching her eyebrows together.  
  
"Blood on the moon."  
  
"There isn't a ring around it, is there?" Lily asked, her eyes growing wide. Melody nodded.  
  
"Oh, no," Lily said. Suddenly, her face changed. She looked into the fire, her eyes tearing up, completely distraught, full of raw emotion.  
  
"Mom!" Melody said. "We have to do something." Lily nodded, tears streaming down her face. She stood up and walked to her closet, pulling out her navy blue cloak.   
  
"I'm leaving," she said. "Sirius, go explain this to Dumbledore. Melody, go home. It's the only safe place for you." She slid on her cloak.  
  
"But Mom-" Melody began.  
  
"Lily, you can't!" Sirius said.  
  
"Stop!" Lily said, holding up her hands. "Melody, you can't argue. I know James and I are being irresponsible and completely ignoring the purpose of the Secret-Keeper charm, but we have to protect you. Now go!" Melody looked as if she wanted to protest, but sighed after a minute, her shoulders sagging, defeated.  
  
"Floo powder's in the blue jar on the bottom shelf," Lily said, pointing at her Potions cabinet. As Melody went to get it, she turned to Sirius.  
  
"Sirius, go to Dumbledore. Tell him James is in danger and I've gone to get him." Lily shook her head. "I should have ended this long ago."  
  
"Lily, it's not safe, you can't go-you're not even sure where he is, are you?" Sirius protested. Lily looked him in the eyes, her face set.   
  
"Sirius, that's my husband out there. I love him. I can't just sit here and wait for an owl to come tell me he's dead! Now, I don't care how big the world is, how hidden he is, or how many Polyjuice Potions he's taken. I will find him, and when I see him, I will know." She said, her voice shaking. She turned to see Melody leave.   
  
"Go," she said, turning back to Sirius. "I'm getting my broom, and I'm going to fly. Now go!"  
  
Sirius turned and walked out of the dungeon, hardly believing that he was doing this-or that Lily was doing what she was doing.   
  
As he passed by a window, he said the moon, and the girls were right-blood. Blood and a ring. And as soon as he saw that, he knew what Melody had felt.   
  
Like a dagger was ripping right through his stomach. Like he was going to be sick. Like he'd just lost something irreplaceable.  
  
Like...  
  
Like his best friend had just died.  
  
  
  
  
A/N: Okay, well, I hope you all liked that! Don't flame me for the ending, just...be worried. Be...concerned. There's definitely something wrong. But it's not all bad! In the next chapter, we find out what happened to Harry, see Lily and James, and maybe even a little Voldemort...(I dunno, I don't really have this planned...)  
  
Well, please R/R! I worked really hard on this chapter! (You have no idea how many times I've proofread and edited this...) Thanks for reading! ^_^  
  
~*Sierra Charm*~  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	7. Chapter Six: The Good Old Days

A/N: Yaaay!! I finally, finally, finally, finally finished it!!!! Woo-hoo! I bet all of you are happy, right? Right. Well, anyway, I made this chapter really long to compensate for it being so late in posting, and yeah. Thank-yous are posted at the bottom, and I just have one more thing to say before letting you read the story: PLEASE READ MY AUTHOR NOTES!!! PLEASE!!! So many questions would be answered for you if you would JUST READ THE AUTHOR'S NOTES!!!!!!!!!!  
  
*a-hem* Well. Now that that's over with, here's the story!  
  
  
  
  
Chapter Six  
The Good Old Days  
  
Lily ran through the school like a madwoman, clutching her broom so tightly her knuckles were white, which wasn't easy, because her hands were so sweaty she could barely grip it. Images flitted through her mind as she ripped through one secret passageway after another. Once she ran into the caretaker, Filch, but didn't stop or bother to say she was sorry. At this point all she cared about was James.   
  
She reached the top of the tallest tower, mounted her broom and flew. Using several illegal speed charms, she sped off like a fighter plane into the distance. A fighter plane...Lily thought to herself. Bad analogy. It was only bad because it made her think of James. Suddenly, a memory bubbled up from the depths of her brain.   
  
She remembered the stupid fight they'd had when Harry was just a baby, over whether or not Lily should make airplane noises to feed Harry his baby food with. Tears streamed more insistently down her cheeks. She pushed her broom to go faster. There were so, so many memories...  
  
***  
  
Harry couldn't sleep. It was impossible. He was too elated. He stared out the window at the half-full moon with a dopey smile on his face. He'd made the Quidditch team. He'd made the Quidditch team! Youngest player in a hundred years!  
  
He suddenly saw something fly across the sky and shadow the moon, but it was only for a moment, and so quick that Harry wasn't sure whether he'd really seen it at all. It looked like it might have resembled someone--or something--on a broomstick, but he had only seen it for an instant, so he couldn't be sure.   
  
He slipped back into his Quidditch daze, completely unaware of what was happening in any other part of the world for that moment, such as Transylvania...or, for that matter, in his own school...  
  
***  
  
Sirius rushed up the stairs to Dumbledore's office, ripping through even more secret passageways than Lily had. He ran into Filch, too, and Filch was less than pleased as Sirius tried to scurry along without a word.  
  
"Hey! Come back here!" Filch yelled.   
  
Sirius turned around and grabbed Filch's hand quite unexpectedly, shaking it eagerly. "Filch! 'Ol buddy, 'ol pal! Good to see ya! How's that darling cat of yours? Still flea-infested, I hope? Good! Good! Well, I must be on my way now, I've got children to terrorize!" Sirius said this all very quickly and dashed off again, leaving Filch quite confused.   
  
Sirius made it to the statue in front of Dumbledore's office. He knew the password somewhere in the depths of his mind (he thought) but he wasn't sure if it had been changed or not, so he took out his wand and pressed it against the gargoyle's nose. Its eyes lit up, and Sirius started talking.   
  
"Professor Dumbledore! It's Sirius Black! I need to talk to you!"  
  
The gargoyle worked as something of an intercom for those who knew its secret. After several moments, Dumbledore's sleepy voice crackled back over.  
  
"Come on up," he said, and the gargoyle jumped aside. Sirius entered and climbed the staircase as quickly as he could. He knocked on the doors before he entered, and was somewhat surprised to see Dumbledore sitting at his desk in blue-and-white striped pajamas with a cap to match.   
  
"Hello, Sirius," Dumbledore said cheerfully, although he punctuated the end of the greeting with a large yawn. "Interesting moon tonight, wouldn't you say?" Dumbledore sat back in his chair and put his hands behind his head, looking out the window as if he hadn't a care in the world. Sirius could see his feet poking out around the edge of the desk and noted that they were covered in a particularly fine pair of wool socks.   
  
"Ah, yes," Dumbledore said, noting Sirius's gaze. "Lovely socks, aren't they? Lily got them for me last Christmas. I always told her you can never have too many wool socks. I must admit I am rather fond of them."  
  
Sirius smiled. This was part of why he liked Dumbledore so much. Any other wizard of Dumbledore's power and reputation would most likely be strutting around the office with a military command demanding to know why they were awaken at such an hour of the night. Dumbledore, however, was content to sit and talk about the interesting moon and pairs of wool socks before getting around to the real matter at hand. And he was incredibly modest, too. Sirius imagined if he ever became famous, powerful, and well-respected, he'd want to become something like Dumbledore.   
  
"Now, what did you want to talk about?" he asked.   
  
"Well," Sirius said grimly. "Lily's rushed off in the middle of the night to go find James, who she and her daughter Melody seem to think is in very big trouble. They got very worried about the state of the moon."  
  
Dumbledore nodded and got up from his chair. He walked over to the window and gazed out of it thoughtfully, hands clasped behind his back. He turned to Sirius. "You know what this means, don't you?" he asked.  
  
Sirius sat up straighter in his chair, tensing and preparing for the worst possible statement ever. "What?" he asked.  
  
Dumbledore turned back to the window. "We're going to need a new Potions master."  
  
***  
  
"ALEX! Alex, WAKE UP!" Melody yelled, running up the stairs and into Harry's room, where Alex was sleeping. She shook him awake, and, disoriented, he rolled over and fell onto the floor.  
  
"Ow," Alex said, getting up.  
  
"Alex, we have to go to Hogwarts!" Melody said. "Pack up a suitcase! We're leaving right now!"  
  
Alex blinked. "Have you gone mad?"  
  
"No!" Melody said furiously. "I have not gone mad! We just need to get to Hogwarts!"  
  
"Why do we have to go to Hogwarts in the middle of the night?" Alex asked sleepily, sitting down on his bed.   
  
"Because!" Melody said, as if that explained everything. She yanked Alex's suitcase out from its position at the foot of Harry's bed and opened it. It was still full of clothes and stuff. "You haven't unpacked yet?" she asked, looking up at Alex. He shrugged.  
  
"First of all, do I ever unpack? Second of all, where am I supposed to put it?"  
  
"Harry's closet is empty, ya know." Melody said. "He took all his clothes to Hogwarts with him!"  
  
"He did?"  
  
"Yeah!" Melody said, walking over to Harry's closet and yanking open the doors. There was nothing left on the clothes rack except hangers. "Observe!" she said.   
  
"But that's not important right now!" she rambled on. "I'm going to go pack a suitcase! We have to go to Hogwarts!"  
  
She left the room before Alex could even ask 'Why?' again. He shook his head after her and flopped back down on Harry's bed. "She's mad," he said, and rolled over, fully intending on going back to sleep.   
  
"And don't you dare fall back asleep!" Melody yelled from her bedroom.   
  
Alex sat back up. "Bugger," he said, and dragged his suitcase downstairs, setting it in front of the fireplace. Several minutes later Melody came clunking down the stairs with a suitcase that was bulging.   
  
"Okay, let's go," she said, reaching for the Floo powder.  
  
"Why are we going again?"   
  
"Because," Melody said, throwing some Floo into the fire. "My dad's in trouble!" she said, and stepped into the fireplace. "Potions dungeon at Hogwarts!" Alex heard her yell before she disappeared.   
  
Alex sighed and followed her example.   
  
***  
  
Melody Cauldwell was not a happy person. Here she was, at one in the morning, stumbling through the hallways in a thin nightgown and a bathrobe when she should be asleep. She made it to the gargoyle in front of Dumbledore's office and muttered "Ben and Jerry's" (Dumbledore had spent the summer in America and discovered 'Ben & Jerry's' ice cream), walking through the opening after the gargoyle had jumped aside.   
  
She knocked on the door to Dumbledore's office and wasn't particularly surprised to find that, upon her entry, she saw Sirius Black and the professor playing a particularly fine game of ping-pong. Melody gave them a 'you-really-are-pathetic-little-boys' look, shook her head, and sat down in a chair.   
  
"Good morning, Melody," Dumbledore said, not taking his eyes off the ping-pong game.   
  
Melody yawned. "I don't know if I'd call it a particularly good morning, Professor," she said. "I was, after all, dragged out of bed at one in the morning and all I seem to be doing is bearing witness to a rather boring ping-pong game."   
  
Sirius missed the ping-pong ball and it suddenly exploded. Melody jumped slightly. "As you were saying?" Sirius asked. Melody relaxed, and her eyes went from round back to their half-asleep position. She just shook her head and yawned again.   
  
With a 'pop!' the ping-pong table disappeared, and Dumbledore walked over and sat at his desk. Sirius sat down next to Melody.   
  
"What's wrong?" Melody asked.   
  
"Well, Lily appears to have run off in the night, and we are short a potions master." Dumbledore said.   
  
"WHAT? WHY?" Melody asked, shocked.  
  
Dumbledore turned to Sirius, who nodded and started explaining. "Lily's gone off after James. She thinks he's in trouble."  
  
"What's gone wrong?" Melody asked, worry lines etched all over her face.  
  
"We're not sure. Melody woke up in the middle of the night and came downstairs shrieking that her dad was in trouble. She woke me up and we came to Hogwarts, where we found Lily. She saw the moon, felt something was wrong, and flew off to who knows where. Now we have no idea where either James or Lily are."  
  
"And we're short a Potions master," Dumbledore finished. "Which is part of why we interrupted your beauty sleep,"  
  
"I never said I was getting beauty sleep," Melody said defensively.   
  
"Well, I suppose that's a good thing then, as I believe if you were any prettier, Mr. Black would most likely fall out of his chair," Dumbledore said with a twinkle in his eye.   
  
Melody quickly looked over at Sirius, who averted his gaze from her and turned a quite brilliant shade of red. Melody started giggling, turning a little pink herself.   
  
Dumbledore looked upon James, Lily, Melody, Sirius, and Remus as something of his children. At the very least he felt some responsibility for them. He'd taken notice of them since their first year at Hogwarts-Melody, Sirius, Remus, and James because they had a knack for getting in trouble and Lily because she was exceptionally bright. They had all become Prefects, and soon after that, best friends (although Lily and James liked to pretend they hated each other), mostly because of Melody and the fact that she was Lily's best friend.   
  
They were an amazing group of people, and Dumbledore held them all in the greatest respect. But that didn't mean he exempted them from a fair amount of teasing. Melody and Sirius, for example, needed all the teasing and help they could get before they would finally admit they liked each other. They were being more stubborn than James and Lily, and considering James and Lily's Romance That Wasn't, that was quite a feat.   
  
Sirius and Melody were two of the best-looking people Dumbledore had ever seen (which, considering all the people Dumbledore had met in his life, was saying something), and if they ever got married, they would have disgustingly beautiful children. And considering the way Sirius and Melody had been looking at each other for the past ten years, they were bound to get married sometime, if not soon.   
  
Nobody could blame Melody for being cautious about stepping into another relationship after her awful marriage. To this day, Dumbledore wasn't sure what had compelled her to marry Lucifer Malfoy. He was much older than her, they didn't appear to have anything in common, and...well, Dumbledore supposed it was her choice.   
  
"Getting back to the matter at hand," Dumbledore said. "We need a new Potions master." He looked very pointedly at Melody.   
  
"Oh, no!" she said. "I am not teaching Potions class!"  
  
"We don't have very many options," Dumbledore said. "Unless you'd rather Professor Vector did it. That's very possible. He's good at potions. However," Dumbledore continued, noting the sour look on Melody's face at the mention of Professor Vector, "I think that Lily would rather have a close friend look over her potions for her, wouldn't you say?"  
  
Melody sighed. "But I'm the Dueling Master! How am I supposed to teach potions and dueling at the same time and keep all of it straight? I mean, the times wouldn't conflict, I suppose, but that's a lot to keep track of!"  
  
"We can always have Sirius assist with dueling." At this, Sirius's eyes sparked.   
  
"Dueling is fun!" he said, en evil-looking smile spreading across his face.   
  
"Oh no," Melody said. "You are not going to take over my dueling club. I am going to give you explicit instructions!"  
  
"Sure," Sirius said, avoiding her gaze, still smiling. Melody just laughed. He wouldn't do anything she wouldn't do.   
  
"So it's arranged, then?" Dumbledore asked. Melody and Sirius nodded. "I believe you'll find Lily's class schedule in her office, but we can worry about that in the morning. Good night."  
  
"Good night," Sirius and Melody said together. They all rose and left, quite tired.   
  
***  
  
Lily should have been tired, but her heart was pumping the blood too fast through her veins for her to get drowsy. She took hold of the "L" pendant at her neck and closed her eyes, hoping for some sort of sign as to where James could possibly be. When he had given her the necklace they hadn't been dating, and the fact that they were friends seemed subject to change at any time. Even though they weren't that close (or at least weren't willing to admit they were), Lily suspected he had put some sort of charm on it to link him to her, because whenever they were apart, it seemed like the necklace could lead her to him.   
  
She felt a tug in her gut and a tingle where her fingers were touching the pendant. The necklace was telling her where to go. She opened her eyes with new determination and flew into the night, pushing the broom to go faster than ever.  
  
***  
  
Lily landed in a forest somewhere, dismounting and drawing her cloak close around her, hoping it would help her blend into the night. There was a town nearby, but she couldn't very well just fly in at who-knows-when in the morning and start knocking on doors, especially since she knew there would be Aurors there keeping watch over the skies for Death Eaters, because even though Death Eaters didn't usually fly, the Ministry was developing a system to track when and where Death Eaters Apparated. It was all very complicated.   
  
It was very dark in the forest, and she would have loved to light her wand, but she didn't for fear of being seen by the wrong people or being seen and mistaken for someone on the wrong side.  
  
She crept through the forest as carefully and quietly as she could, which wasn't working very well because she could see very little moonlight through the trees and kept stepping on twigs and snapping them. She winced every time she did it and nearly gave up trying to be quiet, but decided she wasn't going to risk anything.  
  
For a moment Lily wondered why she wasn't just Apparating into the town, and decided she really didn't know, except for the fact that she really wouldn't know where to Apparate to inside the town and might end up landing in somebody's house or something, and that certainly wouldn't be good. Then she wondered why she hadn't Apparated to this forest in the first place, and realized that she hadn't known where she was going in the first place, and that was why she had flown. She was starting to make sense to herself, yes she was!  
  
Okay, Lily thought, shaking her head. Maybe I'm a little bit more tired than I'm giving myself credit for...   
  
She suddenly got the sense she was being watched and jerked her head instinctively, then hit herself mentally for being so stupid. Now, if someone really was watching her, they most likely knew her exact location.   
  
Before she could think of anything to do, she heard a voice call out a spell into the night.   
  
"Stupefy!"  
  
She gasped, and tried to jump out of the way, but it was too late. She just moved herself even more into the path of the spell, and then there was nothing.  
  
***  
  
This. Was not. Good.   
  
Alex and Melody looked at each other and gulped. They both looked back at the strange old man who was looking for some form or another in his desk. He seemed to find what he was looking for and set the forms on his desk. He stood over Alex and Melody, hands clasped behind his back.  
  
"Out of bed, eh?" He said to them. "Thought you'd just take a midnight stroll? Forget the school rules, did we?"  
  
"Oh, no, we-" Melody began, trying to explain they weren't students, but the old man cut her off, which, she thought after a moment, was probably a good thing, considering she'd probably be in more trouble if the old man knew she wasn't supposed to be anywhere near this school, let alone roaming the halls at night looking for Alex's mom.   
  
"Enough! I don't need excuses, I just need names. What are your names?" He asked them, staring at both of them hard.   
  
"Shouldn't I be appointed a lawyer before I answer these kind of questions?" Alex challenged.   
  
Melody glared at him, a sour look on her face. He had spent far too many holidays with Muggles in America.   
  
The old man looked confused and slightly angry. "Tell me your name," he barked, "or it'll be the Headmaster's office for you!"  
  
Melody didn't think this seemed like such a bad idea. She knew Dumbledore, and he'd be much easier to talk to than whoever this was.  
  
She stood up and crossed her arms defiantly. "We're not telling you anything!" she said.   
  
The old man went rather red. "That's enough! We're going to see the Headmaster!" He grabbed one of Melody's arms rather roughly and dragged her out of his office. Alex shrugged and followed the pair of them.  
  
The old man led (or dragged, in Melody's case) them upstairs to a statue of a gargoyle and said "Ben and Jerry's". The gargoyle sprang aside, much to the shock of Alex and Melody, and they then proceeded up a staircase to a set of double doors, which the old man knocked on.   
  
They waited for several minutes for Professor Dumbledore to answer. He did, looking slightly sleepy but more awake than one might be at three o'clock in the morning. He was wearing blue-and-white striped pajamas with a matching cap and fuzzy blue slippers.  
  
"Mr. Filch, how can I help you?" Dumbledore asked. Melody looked at him, amazed. Who had the energy to be polite at three o'clock in the morning?  
  
"These two were roaming the halls and they've refused to tell me their names!" Dumbledore looked at Alex and Melody and nodded.  
  
"Very well. Leave them with me, and I will deal with them accordingly. Good night, Mr. Filch."  
  
Mr. Filch nodded and left, and Dumbledore beckoned Melody and Alex into his office.  
  
"I take it you two have heard about Lily running off in the night?" Dumbledore asked, sitting down in his chair and yawning. Melody nodded, but Alex looked rather confused. He opened his mouth to ask, but Melody stepped on his toe and hissed,  
  
"I'll explain later!"  
  
Dumbledore looked rather amused. Melody cleared her throat and spoke.  
  
"I was the one who woke up and thought my dad was in danger in the first place."  
  
Dumbledore nodded. "Well, Godric's Hollow is really the safest place for the both of you," he said.   
  
Melody leaned back in her chair and groaned.  
  
"However," Dumbledore continued, and Melody's ears perked up a bit; "since Sirius and Melody and Harry are here, you can stay until Lily returns."  
  
Melody nearly cheered, but she contained herself and just smiled.  
  
"Did you bring anything with you?" Dumbledore asked. Melody nodded and told him that their luggage was in the potions dungeon. Dumbledore said he was too tired to get up and walk the whole way, so he Summoned their bags and conjured cots for them to sleep in, and told them he'd find suitable rooms for them tomorrow, but as it was very early, why didn't they all just go to sleep?  
  
Melody and Alex nodded and fell into their beds without bothering to change. Dumbledore smiled at them a moment before retreating back into his bedroom, and discovered that he couldn't get back to sleep.  
  
***  
  
Lily's eyes had been open the whole time, but now, as she became un-petrified, they began to see. She was disoriented for a moment, but her eyes focused and she realized she was still in the forest. She felt someone nearby, but couldn't see anything but trees and darkness around her.  
  
Quite suddenly, a black-robed figure appeared in the darkness. Lily screamed, but her shrieks were soon muffled by a black-gloved hand over her mouth. She was trembling, eyes wide with terror, unsure what to do. Her wand! Did she still have her wand?  
  
The figure lifted their other hand and lifted their hood off their head, letting it fall back. Lily's throat tightened and all the muscles in her body tensed as she looked into the face of...  
  
James!  
  
Her entire body sagged with relief, and she removed his hand from her face, wrapping him in a hug, which he gladly returned. She pressed her face against his chest, taking great unsteady breaths and trying to remind herself why she was here.  
  
"Lily," James said softly, pulling away and tucking a strand of his wife's hair behind her ear. "What are you doing here?"  
  
She suddenly remembered. "Saving you!" she cried, rather softly.   
  
"Saving me? From what?" he asked, confused.   
  
"Oh, James, I don't know! I-Melody woke up in the middle of the night and dragged Sirius to Hogwarts and started rambling on about the moon and-oh, James have you seen the moon?" Lily asked, distressed.  
  
"Shh," James said, pulling her close to him. "Calm down. I'm just fine. There's nothing going on here."  
  
"I...James, I have a horrible feeling about you being here. Something's just not right."  
  
"Well, what's wrong? Lily, I can't very well leave without reason!"  
  
"Look, James-you have to leave! You just have to! Please trust me!" She pulled back a little and looked into his eyes. "Please don't make me worry about you James, I do enough already!" she said, putting a hand on his face.   
  
"Lily!" James exclaimed, a pained look on his face. He removed her hand from his cheek and turned his head away. "Don't do this to me! I know you hate me working out here, but-"  
  
"James, that's not it!" Lily insisted. "This is something different! It's-" She cut off as she saw another figure appear nearby, and then another.  
  
James followed her gaze to the two new figures and she felt him tense.   
  
"Isn't this sweet," one of the figures said, and Lily recognized it immediately. She shivered involuntarily and her fingers gripped James's arms tightly. It was Voldemort.  
  
"Apparate with me," James whispered very softly into her ear, barely moving his lips.  
  
"To where?" Lily whispered back. They both knew they weren't going to win this fight.  
  
"Rome."  
  
"Okay," Lily said.  
  
"Okay. When I say 'go', go!" James said.   
  
"Okay," Lily said.  
  
"Avada Kedavra!" Voldemort yelled, and Lily screamed, but James had reacted before Voldemort had finished uttering the spell, and rolled them both out of the way, grabbing his Invisibility Cloak and Lily's broom as they went. The spell hit a tree instead, and all of the leaves drooped and began to fall off as it instantly died.   
  
"Go!" James yelled, and Lily closed her eyes and concentrated, and soon she was lying on a sidewalk instead of a forest floor.   
  
She opened her eyes, breathing hard, and sat up. James sat up next to her, breathing hard as well. Lily was shaking, but she gathered her wits about her and looked around.  
  
"Why Rome?" she asked.   
  
"Because," James said, standing up and offering a hand to Lily, "the minister's here this week, and he's meeting with the Italian Minister of Magic."   
  
"Oh." Lily said as she accepted his hand and pulled herself up. "I guess you're going to have to tell him Voldemort found you."  
  
"That would be the objective," James replied, gathering up his Invisibility Cloak and shoving it into a pocket.  
  
"But why the Ministry?" Lily asked. "What's the Minister of Magic going to do?"  
  
"Besides throw a hissy fit and ask a lot of stupid questions? Nothing, really." James answered, taking her hand and beginning to walk down the street. "It's just to let him know Voldemort's got some way of tracking us, and maybe he'll start worrying more about this war than he has been the last few years. If Barty Crouch were still around..." but then he trailed off and sighed.  
  
Lily had a look on her face. She never had liked Barty Crouch much. "I don't know, James. If Barty Crouch were still around I think a lot more innocent people would be dead right now!"  
  
"Would they?" James asked. "More than Voldemort's been killing himself? Lily, nobody likes war, and everyone tries to avoid making sacrifices as much as possible, and I will admit that Barty did go a little overboard sometimes, but at least we were getting things accomplished! We were just starting to get negotiations going with the centaurs and the mermaids and the veela when he was murdered. The new minister won't even consider negotiating with them. He's convinced that only witches and wizards can fight and win this war, which is all very well for him but I think he's forgotten that Voldemort's been using the dementors and giants all along."  
  
Lily sighed and scuffed her shoe. "I know, James. It's just-God, this war is so complicated! Will we ever reach a place where we can all be happy again, James? Do you think there will ever be an end to this stupid war?"   
  
James shook his head and looked at the ground. "I don't know, Lily. I don't know."  
  
***  
  
The next day, as the first year Gryffindors and Slytherins filed into the potions dungeon, they were all very confused. They saw a strange woman sitting on their Potions professor's desk, which some of the students identified as the Dueling Master and others did not.  
  
As it was, the strange woman was young and remarkably beautiful, and carelessly licking a lollipop which appeared to be turning her hair bright green.   
  
Harry and his friends walked in and stopped dead. Harry, because he knew exactly who it was; and his friends, because there was a strange green-haired woman sitting on their professor's desk.   
  
"Melody?" Harry said, bewildered.  
  
"Harry!" Melody said cheerfully, seeing him and waving. "Do come here, would you?"   
  
Harry, quite confused, nodded and walked over to her, leaving his friends to take their seats. He walked over to her, and she removed her sucker (which now appeared to be turning her hair orange) and spoke to him in an undertone.  
  
"Harry, your mom flew off last night to find your father because she thinks he's in trouble and no one knows why. Who knows when she'll be back, but Sirius and I are here, and your sister and Alex snuck in last night and are hiding out somewhere. If you want, after classes end come here and we'll go find them and see if we can't get this sorted out."  
  
This was a lot for Harry's brain to take in at the moment, so he simply nodded and walked back to his seat rather in a daze, a horrible feeling of anxiety in the pit of his stomach. Once seated, he, like the rest of the class, turned his attentions to Melody, who was licking the last bit of her sucker, which was turning her hair blue. The students looked at each other as if to say, "What in the...?", but no one actually spoke.   
  
Melody luxuriously finished her sucker and tossed the stick over her shoulder, not bothering to check whether it landed in a trash can or not.  
  
"Hello!" she bid the class once she seemed prepared. "Since I'm no good with names and this really isn't my class, I'll just skip taking roll and we'll come up with a much more fun way for me to learn your names. Hmm...let's see..." Melody said, thinking. "TAG!" she said suddenly, and some of the students jumped. "That's it!" she said happily. "Magical tag."  
  
The student's looked at each other skeptically.  
  
"Everybody up!" she said, hopping off the desk. "Up, up, up!" The students all got up, muttering to each other. "I want you all to stand out of the way while I get rid of this silly furniture!" Melody said. She had all the students stand by a wall while she zoomed all of the furniture into Lily's private potions dungeon. "There!" she said, when she was done. The dungeon was much more spacious than any of the students had realized. "That's much better!"   
  
"Okay, first, everyone pick a partner!" Melody commanded. The students paired up. "First, we're going to learn a simple spell. The spell will allow us to easily distinguish the 'it' from the rest of the players." The students looked at each other. What in the world was she going to do?  
  
"Puniceus!" Melody cried, putting the spell on herself. She immediately began glowing bright pink---her hair, her clothes, everything. It was as though she'd been covered in radioactive pink bubble gum.   
  
"Now you all try." She said. "Once you perform the spell on someone else, the spell will come off of you. All you have to do to perform the spell is point your wand and say the word. Nothing to it. Go ahead, give it a try!" she said. The students all shrugged and tried. Instantly the room was filled with glowing pink people. Melody beamed. "Wonderful!"  
  
"To reverse the spell, simply point your wand and say 'contrarium'!" Melody instructed, demonstrating, and she no longer looked like a radioactive pink bubble gum woman.   
  
With that, the room was full of regular-looking students. "Wonderful!" Melody said again. "And now, for the rules."  
  
She cleared her throat. "First of all, there will be no base. Just keep running around like chickens with your heads cut off and try not to be tagged 'it'. To be tagged 'it', the 'it' must hit you with the puniceus spell. When you are tagged 'it', you must yell your name loudly three times before trying to tag someone else. You can shout your first name, last name, middle name, whatever, I don't care. I don't care if you feel like calling yourself Froggy today, just yell out a name." The class laughed at that.  
  
"Once you have been tagged and have tagged someone else 'it', go stand behind the red ribbon."  
  
The class was confused. "What red ribbon?" Hermione asked.  
  
"This red ribbon!" Melody said, flicking her wand. A red ribbon flowed out of it and stretched itself widthwise across one end of the room. "So once you have been tagged and tagged someone else, go stand behind the red ribbon. The last person to be tagged 'it' will get something special. I don't know what yet, but oh well. Please tell me none of you have any questions."  
  
"None of us have any questions," Harry assured her. Melody rolled her eyes at him. "Anyway," she said, turning herself pink, "I will be the first 'it'. Professor Cauldwell, Professor Cauldwell, Professor Cauldwell!" she yelled, and the rest of the class shrieked and ran as she started shooting spells at them.  
  
***  
  
"Har-ry, Har-ry, Har-ry!" the class chanted.   
  
Fifteen minutes after the game had started, it was almost over. Hermione was desperately trying to put the puniceus spell on Harry, but it wasn't working too well. He was too good at blocking and dodging her spells, and Hermione all in all looked rather frustrated.   
  
Melody was having far too much fun. She enchanted her robes to flash the words 'GO HARRY!' and had changed them to Gryffindor colors. She had a big foam hand on, like one might find at some Muggle sporting event or another, and was making up corny cheers.   
  
"Harry! He's Harry! His name's not Larry! He dodges, jumps and blocks 'em all, even though he's not real tall! Yeah, Harry! Harry! His name's not Larry! Woo-hoo!!"   
  
Parvati and Lavender were giving her strange looks. "Oh, come on, girls, get in the spirit!" Melody exclaimed, pointing her wand at them. Parvati and Lavender shrieked and looked rather embarrassed to suddenly be wearing cheerleading uniforms and holding pom-poms.   
  
"Oh, fine, be anti-spirited!" Melody said, and she changed their outfits back to regular school robes. Both girls looked rather relieved and edged as far away from the crazy professor as they possibly could.   
  
In the end, Melody ended it ("Fine, fine, fine, Harry, I think we've gathered your name, both of you can have a prize!") and, after Melody had returned all the furniture to their rightful places and forgotten most of the students' names, they began class.  
  
***  
  
"Do you think the minister will see you right away?" Lily asked as she and James walked down the street after a late breakfast the next morning.   
  
"He has to," James said. "We have to get back to Hogwarts as soon as possible, and we can't spend all day waiting around for the minister!"  
  
Lily nodded. "It's pretty here," she commented rather blandly. James nodded, but neither of them were really paying attention to their surroundings.   
  
"We ought to come here on holi...day," Lily said, but the words died on her lips as she realized this was not possible. She hung her head and looked and stared at the ground, biting her lip. You'd think...after all these years...  
  
James put an arm around her shoulder and squeezed her reassuringly. "Don't worry, Lily flower. It'll be okay. We'll all be able to come here some day."  
  
Lily nodded, but she couldn't help the tears sliding down her cheeks. Her family would never get to be a normal family. Her children were missing out on holidays they should have had already. They were missing Saturday picnics in the park, boring trips to the market...everything. To think, they'd never even been to Diagon Alley before this summer! Of course, she hadn't been until she was eleven either, but then, she hadn't been born into a wizarding family. It was horrible! How could her kids be missing out on so much? The only child they'd ever really interacted with was Alex, and that wasn't much of a childhood at all...  
  
She wrapped her arms around James and they continued to walk rather lopsided down the street, but she didn't care. She needed him desperately right now, with all the horrible thoughts that were swirling around in her head...and she felt guilty, so unbearably guilty for depriving her children of so much...and then she was sobbing, sobbing again, over the same old thing, something she really had no control over but blamed herself for anyway.  
  
"Oh, Lily," James said, and wrapped her up in a hug, and they stopped walking. Lily hated herself horribly in that moment, hated herself for being weak, hated herself for crying, hated herself for unloading all of this on James, for being eternally scared, for worrying about him so much, for not being able to do anything to help anybody, for pitying herself and then crying about pitying herself, and as she kept thinking that she felt so sorry for herself and at the same time was chastising herself for having the audacity to feel sorry for herself when there were so many other people she should be worrying about, and then she began worrying about her children and her husband and her best friends, and blamed herself for them being in danger, and with each new thought came a fresh wave of hot, horrible tears, and she couldn't stop any of it, it was a vicious cycle that kept going round and round, and the only thing that slowed and eventually stopped it was James, and Lily thanked God for giving her James, because without him right now she feared she'd never stop crying.   
  
"Come on, Lily," he said as her flood of tears died down. "Shh," he said gently. Lily composed herself and kissed him, and they kept walking as they had been until they came to a dirty little pub that, once they had given a secret password to the guard outside, proved to be everything but a dirty little pub.   
  
Inside, it looked like a dazzling cathedral with high arched ceilings and stained glass windows.  
  
"This isn't their Ministry building, is it?" Lily whispered in James's ear, confused, for she'd been to many foreign Ministry buildings and none of them looked like this.  
  
"No," James whispered back, shaking his head. "The Ministry building is actually just outside of Florence."  
  
Lily's eyebrows shot up. "Florence? Why Florence?"  
  
James shrugged. "No clue." He walked up to a desk where a rather official-looking secretary was sitting. She was wearing sky blue robes, her black hair slicked back and pulled up into a tight bun. She was wearing red half-moon spectacles with a chain on them and looked as though she'd rather fit in with Madam Pince.   
  
She looked up at James and said 'how may I help you' in Italian. James asked politely if she spoke English, and the witch sighed and rolled her eyes.  
  
"But of course," she said. "Now, how may I help you?"  
  
"I need to speak with the British Minister of Magic," James said. "He's here on business."  
  
"Yes." The witch said, clasping her hands in front of her and looking up at James, not making a move to help him.  
  
"Do you know where he is?" James asked.  
  
"I do not have the authority to disclose that information," the witch said, in a clipped tone. "But if you have a message, I'll be sure to take it down for him." Again, she didn't make a move to help, not even to pick up a quill. This was just too much for Lily.  
  
"Excuse me!" she butted in.  
  
"Lily-" James began.  
  
"Don't 'Lily' me, James," Lily said, giving him a look, and then turned back to the witch, who was looking at her, fake smile plastered on her face. "Look, missy," Lily began, and the witch sat up straighter in her chair; "my husband just asked you a question. And you need to answer him, politely, correctly, and accurately, because he knows important things that you do not. He is also and Auror, which gives him authority over you that he is too modest to use. Now, where is the Minister?" Lily practically yelled. The witch behind the desk had her lips pursed sourly, and looked rather taken aback. James just sighed.   
  
"Go down that hall, to the left, tap three times on the third column to the right of the gold suit of armor and say 'pactor pacifer'."  
  
"Thank you," Lily said, drawing out the words, and then they left.  
  
"Lily, did you have to?" James asked.   
  
"Well, of course I did!" Lily exclaimed, smiling. James smiled back at her, shaking his head.  
  
They reached the third column to the right of the gold statue of armor. James tapped three times on it with his wand, said 'pactor pacifer', and they both began to ascend the staircase that appeared.  
  
***  
  
"Okay, today we're going to do something a little different than you're used to!" Melody announced. She had no idea what to do with the class, and she'd never been very good at potions, so she decided to just make it up as she went along. A great idea had popped into her mind following the rather interesting game of tag, and she decided to act upon it.   
  
She picked up a piece of chalk and wrote something on the board, then stepped back to let the class see it.   
  
"Experimenting With Potions!" Melody announced, as though she were a cheesy Muggle game show host. "And you didn't learn it from me!" she added at the end, smiling. The class looked skeptical but rather excited.  
  
And so began the destruction of the potions dungeon.  
  
***  
  
"I am bored!" Melody Potter declared.  
  
Alex shrugged. "Don't blame me," he said. "It wasn't my brilliant idea to come here." Melody glared and threw her pillow at him. It landed about a foot away from him. Alex laughed.  
  
"Nice!" he said, laughing again.   
  
Melody got off her bed and stomped over to him, picking up the pillow and whacking him on the head with it.  
  
"So there!" she said, sticking her tongue out at him. He just laughed, easily grabbed the pillow from her grasp, and whacked her with it.  
  
***  
  
"Well, that was productive," Lily said once they'd finished talking with the Minister.   
  
"Tell me about it," James said, and then he shrugged and took his wife's hand. "Shall we?" he asked.  
  
"Hogsmeade?" she asked. He nodded, and with their next step they were strolling through the cheery, homey streets of Hogsmeade. They mounted Lily's broom, and, shrouded in James's invisibility cloak, flew back to the school.  
  
***  
  
"Well, that was fun, wasn't it?" Melody said after her third lesson that day, covered in an odd-looking green goo and looking rather singed. The students blinked at her, and then, almost in one motion, gathered up all their materials and left.   
  
Melody shrugged. "Oh well," she said to herself, and, ignoring the mess, started prodding the contents of her potion. Classes were done for the day, thank the Lord.  
  
Suddenly, a loud scream came from the doorway, and Melody jumped, pointing her wand reflexively. When she saw who was standing there, she wasn't sure whether to feel relieved or frightened.  
  
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY CLASSROOM?" Lily shrieked. Melody looked back into her cauldron and prodded it's contents a bit more, which almost looked as though they were beginning to move on their own.  
  
"Created Flubber, I think," Melody said. Lily didn't seem to appreciate the American Muggle movie reference.   
  
"You are never teaching my class again," she said, sounding rather hostile. Melody wasn't too heartbroken. She shrugged and started to help Lily clean up.  
  
"Sorry about the mess," she said. "But I couldn't think of anything to do, so we kind of made it up as we went along."  
  
Lily groaned. "Please tell me you were not teaching Harry's class today!"  
  
"I was teaching Harry's class today!" Melody said happily, cleaning several odd purple spots off the ceiling.  
  
Lily groaned again. "Great. You've been teaching my child the Joys of Melting Cauldrons!"  
  
"Oh, nonsense!" Melody said, waving her hand dismissively. "Making up potions is fun!"  
  
"Yeah, I can see that," Lily said dryly. "You look like you've just run through a brushfire."  
  
Melody shrugged. "Oh well!" she said happily. "I had fun!"  
  
"You are much too much of an optimist," Lily grumped.  
  
"And you, my dear, are much too much of a stick in the mud!" Melody said, pointing her wand pointedly at her best friend.   
  
Lily sighed. "Don't remind me,"  
  
"Mom!" They both whirled to see Harry standing in the doorway.   
  
"Harry!" Lily said, and she rushed over and scooped him up in a hug.   
  
"Mom!" Harry exclaimed, now irritated, as she tried to plant a kiss on his cheek.   
  
"Oh, calm down!" Lily said, but she let him go.  
  
"Mom, what happened?" Harry asked, as he was still rather confused about the whole thing.  
  
"I guess I had better explain..." Lily said. Harry nodded, and so with that they all proceeded to go upstairs and find James, Sirius, Alex, and Melody, and to have a long, complicated conversation, which eventually turned into a pillow fight. After they had all calmed down a bit, they sat in chairs around the fireplace and stared into it, talking rather more quietly and feeling altogether at peace.   
  
***  
  
"Ew! Mom, Dad, that's disgusting!" Melody Potter said after looking at her parents, who were kissing in an armchair very near the fire. James and Lily broke their kiss and Lily laughed.   
  
"You'll be doing this someday," she said, "and then it won't seem so disgusting." Melody made a face.  
  
"Ew!" she said. "Yeah, right! I'm never gonna kiss a boy! That's disgusting!"  
  
Lily just laughed again and resumed kissing her husband.   
  
"Ew!" Melody said again, this time echoed by Alex, Harry, and Sirius, who had finally looked up from their Exploding Snap game. The older Melody gave Sirius a Look, and he just smiled at her and went back to his game.  
  
"If they're this bad now, when they're married, I'd have hated to see what they were like when they were dating!" Melody said, making another face. This time it was Sirius who laughed.  
  
"What?" Melody asked, rather agitated.   
  
"Oh, they didn't date," the older Melody said.  
  
The younger Melody raised an eyebrow skeptically. "What, my Dad just proposed to her one day, out of the blue?" she said sarcastically.  
  
"Yeah!" Melody agreed, nodding. "That was pretty much it."  
  
Melody rolled her eyes. "Yeah, right!" she said.  
  
Lily and James broke apart again.  
  
"What was that you were saying about us?" Lily asked.  
  
"Melody says you guys never dated!" the younger Melody said. Lily looked at James, and they turned and said at the same time:  
  
"Nope. We never dated." Then they started laughing. Melody was rather confused, and she looked back at the older Melody questioningly.   
  
The older Melody got an idea. "Okay, do you want to see what they did when they were non-dating? You know, that period where they were falling in love and went everywhere together but still weren't dating?"  
  
Melody laughed and nodded.  
  
"We did not go everywhere together!" Lily protested.   
  
"Oh, no?" Melody challenged, raising an eyebrow. She rolled her eyes. "Puh-lease!"  
  
"We didn't go everywhere together," James said. "Not when we hated each other, which was about as often as when we liked each other."  
  
"You never hated each other," Melody said. "You just used those stupid fights as an excuse to flirt."  
  
"We did not!" Lily protested, but her cheeks went pink and Melody started laughing and Lily buried her head into James's robes. "Oh, leave me alone!"  
  
"Anyway, Sirius and I are going to give you a demonstration of James and Lily's non-dating days!" Melody said, rather dramatically. She dragged Sirius away from his deck of cards.  
  
"Observe!" she said.  
  
"Oh, dear," Lily muttered, but she looked amused nonetheless.  
  
Melody grabbed hold of Sirius and kissed him shamelessly, then, after a few moments, pushed him away rather dramatically and slapped him across the face, then stormed from the room rather huffily.   
  
"Ow! That hurt!" Sirius said.  
  
"Oh, you big baby!" Melody called from the hallway before coming back into the room.   
  
James and the younger Melody were laughing, Alex and Harry weren't paying much attention, and Lily was trying and failing miserably not to laugh.  
  
"I did not do that!" she protested lamely, but her cheeks were flaming. Melody just smiled and plopped down on the couch she had been sitting on before, dragging Sirius down with her.  
  
"Hey, I was playing cards!" he protested, but at that moment the deck proceeded to explode, and Harry and Alex looked rather singed.  
  
"Well, that takes care of that problem!" she said decisively.   
  
"Ah, the days of Lily-slaps!" James said, leaning back in the chair, Lily on his lap. "Those were the good ol' days, weren't they?"  
  
They all laughed.  
  
"Yeah," Lily said, looking at the fire, a rather distant look in her eyes. "The good old days..." she said longingly, her words drifting off into nothing.   
  
Then the moment was ruined by James leaning too far back in the chair and sending both of them tumbling head-over-heels out of it.  
  
  
  
A/N: Wasn't that loverly? Yeah, well, anyway, with that done, I'll start working on some other stories, like "Eyes..." and "Ginny's Hogwarts" and yeah...and this story, too! Uh-huh...umm *gulp* yeah. Well, like someone mentioned in some review somewhere, I'm the worst author about posting...I'll work on that. Anyway, here are the thank-yous!  
Thank you to:  
  
Hayley (okay, this was a flame, and let me just say that it was NOT the worst flame I've ever received. I'm sorry, you were just giving yourself waaaay too much credit. As a matter of fact, that's the most PATHETIC flame I've ever received. So next time, step it up a bit, hmm?), Dizzy Grl (well geez I wasn't going to really kill Lily and James...I'm just too nice...lol), summersun, Jenn, Digifan, FeatherQuill, pudadingding, none (lol so descriptive, right? And about the H/H thing...I don't know, actually, but I'll think about it...), Sephils (no, sorry, not JK, but thanks so much for the tremendous compliment! ^_^), key, Audrey, Tashi, Laura, Sirius *Padfoot* Black, pickles, catgirl, Danielle, Rose Weasley, zeon, Juliana Black, Kaitlin, Writer Angel, Guess Who (sorry, I'm not good at guessing games, but I am really hyper right now!), Shallan, Julia, Ginny .H. Malfoy, Sarah Lewis, Renyard Al Fiona, Sandra Solaria Dees, Ellie Granger, TigerLily, colee granger, Karen, Nicole (yeah, I know, I'm keeping my promise! ^_^), Zapper, SilverPhoenixWings, Kirst, Katy Burrito, Jazz, Rini, green eyes, sharte (very good description in your review, by the way ^_^ I liked it! I'll have to go read some of your stuff now, uh-huh), AuthorByNight, Avelera, Zepp Hob, LilyChick, Marna, reviewer, Val, Jeanna (thank you, thank you-lol), Star*dust (did ya have any luck with those stories this weekend?-and you stole Martin Luther Chicky Jr! :P (but I think we've been over that, haven't we?)), vmr, Julia McGonagall, Alisha, Brittalia, girls are simply not my kind, Niffler (yeah, I know, Voldy's way too comical, but I'm having way too much fun with this story as it is, lol...anyway, I love your reviews! Keep 'em comin'! ^_^), Lita of Jupiter, Kimmy Larisa, and Eiknlng.   
  
If I forgot anyone, my sincerest apologies!!  
  
*author is truly baffled by the ridiculously large size of her thank you section*  
  
wow. Okay, with the fact that I have more reviewers than I was smart enough to realize, I will start writing the next chapter, like soon-but not right now because, hey, I unfortunately am enrolled in high school and evil Spanish homework calls :P.  
  
So I hope you liked the chapter and please, please review!!! ^_^  
  
Love y'all!   
  
~*Sierra Charm*~  
  



	8. Chapter Seven: Howlers, Birthdays, and P...

A/N: AUUUUUUGH!!!!! Bleurgh! Aack! Yeesh! I'm SO SORRY! But that is not going to do anything now, is it? Augh...well, anyway, woo-hoo I updated! (FINALLY!) I know, I know, it's been five months, and I'm REALLY sorry, and I know everyone's given up on this story already and blah de blah de blah, but I promised this would be the next story I updated, so here I am, updating it, and bwahahaha, here you have a chapter!  
  
But I must apologize in advance for this chapter because it's not very long, and umm...nothing really happens. Sort of. Well, something does, but...oh, never mind. Lots of moping on Lily's part; you'll have to excuse that. I'm sorry, I didn't know what else to put in!   
  
Anyway, the chapter title sucks, so if you have a better idea PLEASE let me know. Thank-you's are at the bottom.  
  
Chapter Seven  
Howlers, Birthdays, and Potions  
  
"What day is it?" Hermione asked the next morning in the Gryffindor Common Room.  
  
Harry, who had spent all of last night with his parents and gotten absolutely no sleep, looked up at her from his chair with half-closed eyes and a half-open mouth and grunted. Ron laughed, Hermione gave him a look, Lavender looked up from braiding Parvati's hair and rolled her eyes, and Neville got out a little date-book.  
  
Neville was halfway there when Hermione rolled her eyes and snatched it away. "Never mind, I remember!"  
  
Harry muttered something rather incomprehensible, and Ron translated for him.   
  
"Hermione, he says he loves you, and would you please give him chocolate bunny slippers, and-hey!"  
  
Harry found his strength and kicked Ron in the shins.  
  
"What, exactly, are chocolate bunny slippers?" Parvati asked, one eyebrow raised.  
  
"I dunno, but they sure do sound tasty," Ron replied, rubbing his stomach. "When are we going to go down to breakfast anyway? I'm starving!"  
  
"Fine, no one cares that it's my birthday, I'll just leave then!" Hermione said, rather huffily, and stalked through the portrait hole.  
  
Lavender and Parvati followed her at once, but Harry, Ron, and Neville stared at each other for a moment, and then Neville said:  
  
"This doesn't mean we have to go buy her a present, does it?"  
  
***  
  
"My poor little cauldrons!" Lily sniffed, scrubbing religiously at the inside of her favorite with magical mess remover.  
  
"Are you going to be at that all day?" James asked, coming to the door.  
  
"Yes! They're my babies, and Melody ruined them!" she replied, cradling the cauldron in her arms. She then set it down and turned to smile at her husband.  
  
Her smile quickly faded, however, when she saw what he was wearing.  
  
"James, not again," she said softly, looking broken.  
  
"It's my job, Lily! What would you have me do?"  
  
"Stay for a while! Be with Harry. Be with me. Or go home and be with Melody. Just...anything, to get you away from it for a while."  
  
"You talk about it like I have an addiction, Lily," he said, walking over to her. "I'm just trying to protect people."  
  
"What about you? What about protecting you, James? If-"  
  
"Lily, we've had this conversation a hundred times! When is it going to be settled?"  
  
"When I can keep my eye on you twenty-four hours a day. When you quit. When Voldemort dies, take your pick, James, but it's not going to be any time soon, unless I stop loving you."  
  
"Don't say that," James said, pulling her to him. "I couldn't handle that."  
  
"Don't worry. I don't think it's even possible," she said, burying her face in his shoulder.  
  
"Good," James wrapped his arms around her as tightly as possible.   
  
"Don't go," Lily pleaded again. "Please."  
  
"I can't be selfish, Lil, I..."  
  
"Yes you can," Lily said, grabbing the sleeves of his cloak and holding them tightly in her fists. "You've been working almost nonstop for eleven years, James...You've earned the right to be a little selfish."  
  
"Lily, how can you say that when you know what we're fighting for? This is your job, too, and-"  
  
"I've managed to do it without getting myself almost blown up a dozen times."  
  
"We've put a lot of Death Eaters into Azkaban, Lily. It is working."  
  
"Yes, but we've put almost as many of our own into St. Mungo's as well. We almost lost the Longbottoms ten years ago! How many more will it take, James? How many before they get to-" she choked on the word she had been about to say, which was 'you', and James pulled back to look at her.  
  
"Lily, look at me," he said, his eyes fierce and bright. Lily looked at him, her own eyes wet and scared.  
  
"There are too many people out there to fight for. We've been over this a thousand, thousand times, and I need you to be brave. Every time you ask me to stay it gets harder to remember why I go out and risk losing you.  
  
"But they need us, Lily. They need you here to help protect the castle and me out there to help protect everyone else. We can't stop now!"  
  
Lily closed her eyes and looked like she was making a very difficult decision. "Go," she said softly. "Just go."  
  
"I'll be back for Christmas."  
  
"You bloody well better be," Lily said, throwing her arms around his neck and burying her face in his shoulder again.  
  
Then, just like that, he was gone. He stepped out of the embrace and left the room swiftly, making Lily feel very cold and alone. She wrapped her arms around herself and shivered. Her robes smelled like James, and she brought a piece of fabric to her nose until his smell, too, was gone, and all traces of James had disappeared from the room.  
  
Three months was too, too long, Lily thought sadly, and returned to her cauldron cleaning, with somewhat less vigor than before.  
  
***  
  
"Poo! I don't want to go home!" Melody Potter declared, plopping down on the bed she would have slept on last night, had her parents not kept her up.   
  
"Like you have a choice?" Alex Cauldwell reminded her, his eyes half-closed, looking dead from lack of sleep.  
  
Melody sighed. "I know, but still...don't you think we could have stayed a little longer?"  
  
"You're just mad because you got your suitcase all packed for nothing."  
  
Melody stuck her tongue out at him. He was right, of course, but did that matter to her? Of course not!  
  
Just then Sirius Black bounced (yes, bounced) into the room. Melody blinked and, once again, wondered why, exactly, he was in charge of them.   
  
"Today is the day our first birthday-present arrives!" He said, sounding very much like a little boy.  
  
"Really?" Melody gasped, her eyes widening in excitement. "Ooh, can we go see?"  
  
"Well..." Sirius began.  
  
"Oh, please, Sirius? Please?" Melody begged, jumping up and down.  
  
"We can spy from outside the Great Hall."  
  
"Yessss!" Melody said, and ran out of the room, followed closely by Sirius and Alex.  
  
***  
  
When the mail came that morning, Hermione was pleased to receive several gifts from her parents by owl, but her face fell when a red envelope fell at her place.   
  
"Oh no," she murmured, recognizing the letter as a Howler.  
  
Her friends were all looking at the Howler, as well.  
  
"Who would send someone a Howler on their birthday?" Parvati demanded, banging the tabletop. "That is really rude!"  
  
"Well, cover your ears!" Hermione said, as the Howler started steaming. She opened it quickly and covered her own ears, cringing.  
  
And the Great Hall was filled with:  
  
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR HERMIONE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! FROM SIRIUS, MELODY AND ALEX!"  
  
"Harry, I'm sorry, but your godfather cannot sing," Hermione said, shaking her head. They all broke into giggles, and Hermione looked much happier.  
  
Of course, it did get rather annoying how everyone kept wishing her a happy birthday all day long, but oh well to that!  
  
***  
  
When Lily found out that it was Hermione's birthday, she began a Potions Class tradition. The only person who protested was Pansy Parkinson, who whined that her birthday had been completely ignored, but Lily told her there was always next year. At any rate, Hermione left Potions class with a beautiful new silver locket hanging around her neck. It was charmed with something special, but the professor had refused to tell her what.  
  
"What if it's a boys' birthday?" Dean Thomas had demanded. "I don't want some stupid old locket hanging around my neck!"  
  
"Well, we'll worry about that when we get there!" Lily had said, sitting on top of her desk and shrugging.  
  
"My birthday's tomorrow!" Seamus Finnigan had yelled out, raising his hand rather unnecessarily in the air.  
  
Lily had glared at him. "Well, we'll WORRY about that when we GET there!"  
  
After that, Potions class had passed rather uneventfully, other than that they all had (unfortunately) been assigned a rather large amount of homework.  
  
"This all your fault, Hermione," Ron complained as the left the classroom.   
  
"Why is it my fault?" She demanded.  
  
"It's your birthday!"  
  
Hermione stuck her tongue out at him and flounced up the stairway. Parvati gave Ron a very pointed look as she followed her friend, and Ron turned to Harry.  
  
"What'd I do?"  
  
Harry just shrugged.  
  
***  
  
"Noooooooooo," Melody whined. "I don't wanna go!"  
  
Lily sighed. "For the last time, Melody, you've stayed here long enough, and---Sirius Padfoot Black!" Sirius, who had been stealing a cookie from Lily's secret stash, looked up and smiled, trying to appear innocent, but the chocolate chips in his teeth gave him away.  
  
"That's not really your middle name, is it?" Alex asked, looking at Sirius as he guiltily replaced Lily's cookie jar.  
  
"Who knows?" Sirius shrugged, and he closed the drawer and magically re-locked it with his wand. He smiled sheepishly again and Lily's withering glare and slinked, dog-like, back over to the fireplace.  
  
Without further arguing, procrastination, or cookie stealing, Lily sent Alex and Melody home by Floo powder, and then looked at Sirius for a moment.  
  
Sirius cocked his head at her. "What?"  
  
"Doesn't school suddenly seem like a long time ago?" She asked.  
  
Sirius nodded, being, for once in his life, actually serious. "A very long time ago," he sighed. "When McGonagall still yelled at us for things like...turning Snape's hair blue, or...turning Mrs. Norris into a porcupine, or..."  
  
"Turning Bertha Jorkins into a donkey?" Lily supplied helpfully.  
  
"There you go!" Sirius said, smiling triumphantly, but his smile quickly faded. "We were friends, weren't we, Lily?" He asked, almost sadly.  
  
"Oh, Sirius!" Lily cried, throwing her arms around him. "Of course we were! Once I got past all the...potatoes, and..."  
  
Sirius smiled and squeezed Lily once before letting her go. "Watch out for James, eh?" He said, pinching her cheek a little for no reason. "He is my best friend and all."  
  
Lily smiled. "And you watch out for Melody-both of them. They are my daughter and best friend and all. And don't forget about Alex either, eh?"  
  
Sirius smiled and kissed the top of her head before leaving.  
  
He was a very affectionate guy, Sirius, once you got to know him, Lily reflected, watching him step fearlessly into the fireplace and disappear.  
  
***  
  
Melody Cauldwell was trying, hopelessly, to read her lesson plans for the next few Dueling Club meetings. You'd think she'd have it figured out by now, but no...  
  
She had woken up in the middle of the night about two days ago with a brilliant idea, written it down, and now she had absolutely no idea what the little scribbles on the piece of paper said.   
  
"Bubble wrap...bubble gum...bunny feet...b...oh, I give up!" She exclaimed, throwing the piece of paper down onto her desk. Of course, the piece of paper (being a piece of paper and all) refused to cooperate with her on THAT as well, and decided to lamely drift and float about before falling onto the floor on the opposite side of her desk.  
  
Melody growled at it for a moment before getting out of her chair, stomping around her desk, and rather violently picking it up. She accidentally sent it flying airborne again, but this time snatched it before it had time to even think about touching the ground.  
  
"Having fun?" asked a bemused voice from the doorway, and Melody turned to see Lily standing and looking at her.  
  
"Tons," Melody replied, bringing the paper up to her face again. "Eurgh! I can't READ this stupid thing!" She cried, stomping her foot at it.  
  
Lily rolled her eyes. "Give me that!" she insisted, snatching the paper out of Melody's hands and examining it for a moment. "It says: bone-freezing curse, " she concluded after several moments. "See? Simple as that." She handed the paper back to Melody.  
  
"How do you do that?" Melody asked incredulously, sitting back down at her desk and scribbling it down again, more legibly, onto another piece of paper.  
  
"Hey, I have to grade homework. Some of those kids' writing looks like little squiggly lines."  
  
"Well, that's all cursive is anyway," Melody said, shrugging, and digging through her desk for something. "Lots of little squiggly lines." She pulled out a folder and stuck the note inside of it. "I'll work on this later," she announced.  
  
Lily sighed. "This is so different!" she exclaimed. "So different and so...the same."  
  
Melody looked at her and smiled. "Still reminiscing, huh?"  
  
"Well, I can't help it! It's just...being here, and having all of us together again, and...well, actually, not all of us-too bad Remus couldn't have been here, I mean-" But Lily cut herself off, and then sighed again.  
  
Quite suddenly the bell rang, and Lily jumped, realizing that the lunch break was over and that she had class right now.  
  
"Damn, I'm breaking my own late policy," she said.  
  
Melody shrugged. "Hey, I'm supposed to be filling in at Defense Against the Dark Arts. Do you see me complaining? Noooo."  
  
Lily rolled her eyes and grabbed Melody's arm, yanking her out of the office. "In that case, we have to go."  
  
***  
  
Lily was working again. The moon hung low and bright in the night sky, and added an eerie glow to the dungeon, its light filtering in through the dungeon's one window and casting odd shadows onto Lily's bubbling potions.  
  
It was a dangerous business, trying to invent potions, and very boring sometimes, too. The process could become long and tedious, especially when you were dealing with finicky potions. Some took minutes to boil; others, as long as a year. When you were trying to invent one, you had no idea how long the potion would need, and as a result there were many potions that had failed when they could have been successful. Also, certain ingredients liked to explode under unfavorable conditions, which made them dangerous to work with as well.  
  
Some witches and wizards were very good at exacting the time needed for boiling a new potion, but they were very rare, and as a result new potions usually came a long in bursts of two or three or six or twelve at a time, usually from the same researcher, who had figure out exact times for many potions all at once. Lily didn't feel she possessed any particular talent for exacting new potions (but how very wrong she was). However, she had already produced four plant fertilizers, two very strong adhesives, a new fantastic stain-remover, a weak new brand of Tickling Potion, and a mild Insanity Serum.   
  
She tested her potions on spiders and beetles (which she felt were two of the least offensive creatures to test potions on), and, sometimes, when she was in dire need of some form of life to test, plants. (Which was how she had discovered her lovely plant fertilizers, although several more plants had been killed in the process.)  
  
Lily was dying to try a potion with phoenix tears, but it was impossible to find a good supply of them anywhere except in illegal trades, or if you had an actual phoenix as a pet, which was extremely rare. (Dumbledore, of course, had a phoenix, but Lily wasn't about to barge into his office and demand phoenix tears-how extremely rude and offending would THAT seem to the phoenix? [Or, while she was on the subject, the headmaster?])  
  
She had several potions bubbling that would be ready in a few days, a few more that were ready to test, and one that she wasn't quite sure about yet, but she had the feeling she'd mixed it in her sleep, because she couldn't remember what ingredients were in it or how long it needed to boil for.  
  
Lily was profusely tired, and found herself inspecting the circles under her eyes in the reflection in one of her cauldrons. She sighed, and stared at the Mysterious Potion.  
  
"I have a stirrer here," she announced to nobody. "And I wish to poke at it, but I'm not sure what will happen if I do." She cocked her head at the potion and yawned, unsure of how to proceed, but after a moment thought that proceeding might not exactly be the best thing, seeing as how she was ready to fall asleep on the lab table.   
  
So instead of testing her potions and figuring out what was in her Mystery Potion like a good girl, she waved her wand at all of the potions and put them away silently. She wandered upstairs to her bedroom (which, naturally, just couldn't be near her potions dungeon) and collapsed, and her sleep was filled with dreams.  
  
***  
  
When Lily woke up the next morning, it was raining. It was also a Saturday. She woke up slowly, and for a while just lay in bed, thinking. She still had memories running around in her head from two nights ago, and for some reason she hadn't been able to get any of them to go away. They were memories of Hogwarts, and of the Marauders, and of Melody and Sirius, and Remus and Mimi, and of falling in love with James...wonderful, beautiful memories that made her cry.   
  
She wished James were here right now, to hold her, and kiss her, and...if she had been at school, she could have gone to see him right then. She could have just rolled out of her bed and waited around the Fat Lady's portrait a while before someone came out and demanded to see James. Or she could have gone to MHQ, or gone to find Melody, or...if it had been Seventh Year, she could have just gone to see him no matter where he was, because she would have had all the passwords.  
  
She had all the passwords now, too, but...there was no James, and somehow that made it all seem worthless. She hated this horrible feeling of longing. It just made her feel like not doing anything. Being without James was like being without air, or water, or food, or...something that was really horrible to be without.  
  
How could she get him to stay? If love wasn't enough, what was?  
  
She sighed and finally got out of bed, her mind scrambled. She looked out of the window at the rain falling from the sky. Drops splattered onto the window as well, in a soothing pattern that cleared Lily's mind a bit.  
  
Remus was coming back today, she remembered. That was good, at least. Every time he left, she felt oddly...guilty. Guilty because she didn't have to suffer, too, and because there wasn't anything more she could do about it than just make him a potion, which didn't ease the pain, or stop anything from happening, but it was the least she could do. She wasn't entirely sure why she felt so guilty about the whole situation; after all, it wasn't her fault, but...for some reason Lily just had the instinct to fix everything; to make everyone feel better. Unfortunately, it didn't always work. She wasn't perfect. She wasn't a deity. She couldn't fix everything.  
  
Things were easier when James was around. He eased her tension, partly because he was home and knowing he was safe took one more worry out of her mind, but also because that was just how she felt around him; calm. God, she missed him!  
  
But she was back to square one again, and no step closer to finding...whatever it was she was looking for. If she had ever been looking for anything in the first place, that is.  
  
"Lovely rain today, wouldn't you say?" came a voice from Lily's doorway.  
  
Normally she would have jumped, but the voice was so familiar, and so calm, and so soothing that all she could do was smile.  
  
"Indeed, Professor," Lily replied, not turning to look at him.  
  
"Come now, Lily, I would think after all these years you'd finally be able to call me Albus," the professor said, and now Lily did turn to look at him, and smiled.  
  
"I guess not."   
  
Dumbledore nodded. "What have you been thinking about? You look troubled, my dear."  
  
Lily's smile fell a little, and she looked back out of the window again. Dumbledore crossed the room and stood next to her. Ever since Lily's father had died, she and Dumbledore had become very close.   
  
"Voldemort," she finally said, very softly.  
  
"Ah," Dumbledore said. "He does seem to be on everybody's mind, doesn't he?"  
  
"I'm just worried that we're not doing anything. That we're not making any difference in this stupid war. That James is just wasting all of his time fighting for a lost cause. Please tell me we're not a lost cause."  
  
"The cause can only be lost if people stop believing it, my dear," Dumbledore said kindly, patting her on the shoulder.  
  
Lily nodded, but she did not look as though she felt this were entirely good news. Maybe she had thought that if the cause had been lost, then...well, then she'd be able to see James again. Of course. What else?   
  
"Do you think three months is a long time, Professor?" Lily asked after a moment.  
  
"Indeed," Dumbledore replied. "Especially if we must be separated from the ones we love."  
  
Lily looked down and nodded again.  
  
"You are being very brave, Lily, my dear. I cannot promise that we are near the end, or, indeed, even near the middle, but I know we are moving forward, and you must hold on."  
  
"Thank you," Lily said, looking out of the window again and smiling slightly. Her heart felt a tad bit lighter, but it still wasn't enough to last her three months.  
  
***  
  
James was back in Auror camp. He had been moved from Camp A to Camp C, in the hopes that he would be more protected from a direct attack by Voldemort.  
  
At the moment, Auror Camp C was stationed in Siberia, which James had ranked decidedly on the bottom of his "Vacation Destinations" list. It was, to put it mildly, cold. Cold. No, no-not cold; that just seemed much too nice. More like...nighttime on Pluto. All day long.   
  
His clothes for sleeping and daytime were virtually the same, and they weren't allowed to use magic in their tents to make them warmer, because that would be much too easy for Death Eaters to track. Camping like a Muggle in sub-zero weather was less than fun. What in the world were Death Eaters doing in Siberia anyway? That was what James wanted to know.  
  
He wished desperately that he could write a letter to Lily, but that was absolutely out of the question. If there was one good thing about Siberia and its ridiculously freezing nights, it was that the Aurora was absolutely beautiful. The first night there he had stared in awe at the brilliant colors flashing across the sky, and nearly gotten his nose frozen off in the process. Too bad he couldn't take a picture; apparently he'd forgotten his camera.  
  
The other Aurors in his new camp were an interesting bunch. Frank Longbottom himself was there, which James was both excited about and grateful for. They still had a lot to catch up on. Also present was the world-famous Alastor Moody. He was getting on in years, and appeared to have more chunks in his face than the last time James had seen him (which wasn't hard to imagine, as it had been nearly twelve years ago), but he was still the same.   
  
Also present was a rather young-looking fellow by the name of Bill Weasley. Why did that name sound so familiar...? James had wondered this over and over since being assigned to the camp, but he couldn't place the name. He had REALLY wanted to owl Lily then, but there was no way it could be done. They weren't allowed to send owls or have pets of any kind at Auror camps, which severely strained relationships sometimes, but it was of the utmost importance that they not reveal their position to anyone, whether by accident or on purpose.  
  
At any rate, Bill was very interesting to talk to, and had some quite amusing stories about his family. He apparently had five younger brothers and one younger sister. He had also originally wanted to work for the wizarding bank Gringott's, but the goblins were no longer hiring wizards of any kind to work at their banks on the grounds that they might be working for Voldemort.   
  
James was, at the moment, trying to get to sleep, but the flashing of the Aurora outside of his tent was bothering him. It apparently didn't bother his roommates (of which there were three), however, because they were all snoring peacefully.  
  
He could faintly see the outline o f the Aurora darting through the sky through the roof of his tent. Then another shape filled the sky, and James couldn't quite make it out. Not sure if he was seeing things, he crawled to the edge of his tent and peeked outside, craning his head to get a good view of the sky. When he saw what the figure was, he fell over, and then quickly gathered his wits about him and triggered the silent Auror Alarm.  
  
The Dark Mark was hanging in the sky.  
  
***  
  
A/N: Hmm. Well. Uh-huh. Anyway, I'm really tired and it's like midnight...(why do I always finish all my chapters late at night??? Why can't I work on them during the day like a NORMAL person? [because you're weird, Sierra, you're weird] Oh, right...well, anyway...)so I can't stay and babble, BUT here is the thank-you section! (Woo-hoo!)  
  
A huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, tremendous THANK-YOU goes to:  
  
Sandra Solaria Dees, FeatherQuill, Amadeus, lilgirlrenegade, Nagini, Meg, Eiknlng, IceAngel, Leandra, Angel Potter Black, SilverPhoenixWings, Haughey, Sailor Kawaii, Fried coffeeholic, *Britz*, Ashlynn Black, Laura aka Rose, Kate, Melody-chan, kittykat, grr..., frizzylizzy, Netty, kaitlin, DizzyGrl, Lyra, ~Rachelle Eva, Aurora, KirjavaLyra, mrp333, KaOs-LuVeR-4eVeR, Midnight Owl, iluvmarauders, Sapphire Dreams, VeRyWiLdWiTcH, Star*dust, sjcw99, sourandsweet, hermioneg, MJ IV, Jessica-Canada, Anie, Lady Ani, Merlin's Quill, Megan McPherson, Sophie, hope19, Alyssa, princess101, bob, and you-know-who.  
  
Whew! Okay, I'm like...tired, and...delirious, and...wow I typed that comma without even thinking about it! haha!  
  
Okay...  
  
DISCLAIMER: This isn't really mine; it all like belongs to JK Rowling, well....except I wrote it...and the whole Mystery Potion and wishing to stir it is really from "Titan A.E." so that's disclaimed too...  
  
DEDICATION: No funny dedications or anything but this whole chapter is dedicated entirely to Star*dust, without whom there would be no silver lockets, and to Britz (who must share the dedication with Star*dust), who lent me plot bunnies. (And her pink frosted donut. But not really. Because she doesn't give things like pink frosted donuts away.)  
  
Okay well that's all buh-bye and please, please, please leave a review? Please? I'm, like...begging...augh. I don't deserve reviews. Well anyway yes I am comatose now woo-hoo!  
  
Okay, buh-bye!  
  
Cheers and Cherry Juice,  
  
~*Sierra Charm*~ 


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